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Ethiopian opal: origin, colors and properties

Nature is the best creator and designer. Its masterpieces it forms for millennia, patiently polishing the skill. One can only enjoy the amazing creations of her hands. Such delicious works are stones. Precious and semiprecious, they have long been used for inlaying jewelry, decorating royal palaces and prayer houses. Ornaments with opals were valued highly and were not affordable for everyone. According to legend, gems are the frozen tears of Zeus's joy after defeating the Titans.

His Majesty the Opal

Opal connoisseurs of jewelry are called a stone, which consists of hydrogel silica and water (no more than ten percent). He is particularly valued because of its diversity, because it can have more than a hundred shades. The most common colors: red, green, blue, purple, yellow, blue, pink. During the formation in the stone, impurities of other minerals that make it unique can get into it. In addition, particles of manganese, iron, nickel or other elements determine the name of the variety of opal.

The play of light, opalescence, is another advantage of this stone. It can be zonal, solid or dotted, the surface can be heterogeneous and uneven. For this he is adored by designers with a bizarre fantasy. The best form for opal, which is also called "crackling" for fragility, is the cabochon.

Deposits of precious stone

About 95 percent of opal production falls on Australia. There are also minor mineral deposits in Sudan, Brazil, Czech Republic, Peru, Mexico. In England, they develop a mine with black or royal stones. Not so long ago, a large gem deposit with special characteristics was discovered in Ethiopia.

New Ethiopian opals appeared on the market in 2008. The deposit named Wegel Tena is distant for two hundred kilometers from Mezezo - a long-known and almost depleted vein. To Addis Ababa from him more than half a thousand kilometers. This region is formed by volcanic basalt, rhyolite calderas and sedimentary rocks. The layer of mineralized opal is quite thin, so it is extracted by hand, hammer and shovel. But the stocks of the noble gem have not yet been appreciated.

Opal Ethiopian and its features

New opals from the Black continent are usually white or yellow. Of course, there are stones of a rather dark shade - brown, almost black. Their distinguishing feature is exceptional hardness and resistance to mechanical damage. Due to such qualities during mining and processing, the mineral almost does not crack. That is why the price for Ethiopian opal is quite high. A natural stone weighing 0.75 carats can be purchased for 1500-2000 rubles.

The stones from Wegel Tena are porous, which gives room for imagination. For example, if they are soaked in water for a long time, they will lose the play of light and become transparent. In a few days, when the Ethiopian opal is completely dry, its structure and previous characteristics are fully restored.

Unusual drawings, color game effects of these precious stones are also exceptional. Today you can find natural Ethiopian opal, painted by nature under the skin of lizards or snakes. It should be noted that previously only artificial minerals created in the laboratory could have such a color. Therefore, only high-level specialists can distinguish a counterfeit from a truly noble stone.

Marketing Tricks

Fans of precious stones a large number. To enjoy his natural beauty, it takes a very long time to look after him properly. Choosing a natural Ethiopian opal, the photo of which won at first sight, it should be remembered that the game of color may differ in reality from the picture. In addition, the visible visual effect depends largely on the viewing angle and illumination. So be prepared that the ordered stone can be different from the image displayed in the storefront of the online store.

Today, on sale, you can find a stone impregnated with colorless natural oil (often used for Australian opals). This procedure enhances the game of color and fixes it. But over time, even oil evaporates, so the jewelry loses its beauty. You can help him at home, having at hand a saucepan-pressure cooker with a hermetically sealed lid and any natural oil (preferably hemp or cedar).

Thinness of care

To store ornaments from a noble mineral is better in the closed box where the constant temperature and humidity keeps. Do not overheat or overcool, overdry, or hit direct sunlight. If this trouble happens, you can soak Ethiopian opal in clean (optimally distilled) water for 24 hours at room temperature and dry it under the same conditions. If the upper layers do not have time to collapse due to low (high) temperature, chemical effects, then the color game will recover completely.

The magical properties of the mineral

Humanity for its long history ambiguously related to opal. He was admired and feared, he was cautious and adorned with himself. Alchemists considered it a very strong stone, in the Middle Ages it was used for magical purposes and was called "the eye of evil." It was believed that only people born under the constellation of Scorpio, can cope with the strength of this mineral, so only they were allowed to wear it on the index finger of the right hand. If opal is inserted into the gold frame, then its magical properties are amplified twice.

The stone of white color is ambiguous. He is a symbol of whims and betrayals, can give rise to illusions and deceptive hopes. But at the same time, it affects the growth of spirituality, warns of dangers, awakens the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy, creates harmony in life. But even this opal strengthens the quality of a person, both positive and negative.

Opal in medicine

Man has used the gifts of nature since ancient times in medicine, so opal was no exception. Indian doctors treated him with special respect. It was used to treat the digestive system and respiratory tract infections, skin diseases and in gynecology. The stone helps to combat stress and insomnia, rickets, normalizes the state of children with developmental delay. In the Middle Ages believed that if you look at the game of the color of the mineral every day, then the vision is restored. And they were protected from the plague. Modern science asserts that opal really has a beneficial effect on the work of the nervous system and brain, increases immunity.

Some interesting facts

Iridescent gems are used by jewelers all over the world. Ethiopian opal, as well as stone from other continents, is set in gold and silver frames. It is used in pendants, rings, earrings, there are cases when he decorated royal tiaras. It is interesting that opals are of the greatest value black and opaque, after them there are milky white stones.

The Australian Museum (Sydney), the Museum of Natural History (Vienna), the Smithton Institute (Washington) are the most famous opals in the world. For example, here refers the opal Reblinga, fire opal from the collection of Hope; Black opal "Devonshire" weighing a hundred carats; Stone Nulinga Nera (from the collection of Goddard); "Red Admiral" with a butterfly-shaped figure; A huge mineral "Australian Olympics" and "Fiery Queen" with a red spot (the opal itself is enclosed in a green ring).

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