bought off ebay years ago.....cuz the guy had good pics ...too good.....but they do flash a lot of color... sorry for the crappy pics but they shine so bright it confuses the camera lens .. There seems to be one thick layer of backing.....of an unknown material...
You need to re-do that last photo. Looks like a doublet and could be low-medium grade black opals or reasonably good Coober Pedy stones.
Black opals have a natural black,gray,dark green,dark blue base and are solid opals.Doublets and triplets are glued together stones with a dark colored base or black epoxy.
Agree, they look like doublets. Here is that picture again: Black opals have a dark ground colour, dark blue or black. These look lighter in these pics. Maybe if you photograph them on a white piece of paper with less light?
HOLY @#%$&*!!!!!! PRICEY BEAUTIFUL LIL' DIVILS, aren't they!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least that Ethiopian Welo one is!!!!!!
What about the opals? You asked what kind they might be. We already know they are doublets, but I thought you were asking about the name of the colour and the pattern:
I am. Holly made a suggestion... As you can see they were bought as Aussie Blacks....but don;t seem to be...
No they don't. They are too light to be black. But that doesn't mean they are not nice, looks like they are. I think even as doublets they deserve a better look. Doublets are not worthless, just not worth as much as solid opals. I have a collection of opal jewellery, but only one black opal, a harlequin black. My set of Aussie white pinfire opal and gold jewellery has a nice value. So has my favourite opal ring, set with three genuine Kalimaya opals and Ceylon sapphires. Real Kalimaya opals are rare, most that are sold as Kalimaya are treated Welo opals. Mine have a creamy yellowish ground, not the highly desired tar black, but since they are the real deal and good quality, they also represent a nice value. What I mean is, opals don't have to be black to be nice.
