All the Welo has cracked. In short, based on my admittedly limited cutting thereof, I don't trust Welo, and hence the additional discount.
This hasn't really been my experience, or that of the dealers I've talked to about the material. Some percentage definitely fall apart during cutting (with some colors appearing to be worse offenders than others), but it seems that usually once they're cut and dried (hehe) they don't tend to misbehave. But I do feel pretty confident in saying that the price quoted was somewhat inflated. Welo opals about 3 carats and down are pretty abundant, and unless they are really exceptional and spectacular (perfectly oriented honeycomb, etc) they can be reliably purchased on eBay for around 10-20 usd. That's not necessarily with the same caliber of cutting, of course, but I would still have trouble seeing a stone less than a carat selling for over 100.
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:29 am Posts: 123 Location: London
Tough one, you should definitely start from buying good rough= avoid Ebay like a plague. Requires some searching on the net or travelling. Usually large gem and mineral shows are quite good place to go if you don't want to go to the source but you need to know the prices. Cutting comes then. If you do it as a hobby, you can cut Welo even by hand, using finer and finer sanding paper but I don't think you can really polish it this way. So in the end you will have to buy at least some micro motor (cheapest option), you can get one probably as cheap as 100$.
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:55 am Posts: 236 Location: Paris - France
I think the stones are quite beautiful but the setting/mounting didn't give them justice. I understand that you are disappointed but has the person who made the pendant not talked to you before making the pendant to require which kind of design you like and didn't he/she show you any drawing before realizing the piece? This is quite unprofessionnal...
Oh dear. This is quite distressing. It would appear that the silversmith in question had little if any experience in stone-setting. (In addition to scant eye for design). As far as one can tell from the point-and-shoot picture the opals themselves do seem lovely and with a "setting" like that they should be easily salvageable if you choose to junk the piece.
It did seem to me while I was reading the thread that you might have proceeded through this venture a little, shall we say, "innocently." The process can vary from person to person of course but in my own mode of working a custom commission normally initiates a dialogue of sketch-and-talk, sketch-and-talk during which the piece can change substantially. Only when both parties have agreed does the fabrication begin, and even then it can still change.
Here's an example. This is a bracelet in copper and silver featuring an opal that looks rather similar to your three. The inside surface is silver and the intent was to join the inside and outer copper surface with silver rivets, which I had a great deal of fun making. Then on hammering the rivets in I took one look at the result and thought, "no no no: this looks stupid and just plain wrong." The client agreed, and so it changed again to something quite different from what it had been when it was already more than half finished. But this time I was happy and the client was too.
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Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:55 am Posts: 236 Location: Paris - France
I agree fully with Hans on the way to proceed as it's also the way I do. Even if you can't talk directly together to discuss the design, a sketch and e-mail are always possible.
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:41 pm Posts: 49 Location: Wyoming USA
It's the setting! That's just not pretty! Looking at the stone's, they are eye candy. I buy jewelry out here from 2 companies. Black Hills Gold or Montana SilverSmith They have a way with color! Not to mention bling! I don't know if they can help you with setting the stone's. Montana Silver Smith would be my starting point. Look up both to see what you can find.
I love natural stones much more than facetted or cabs so am very impressed with the one you have. The matrix doesn't look like Welo but it's hard to tell in a picture. However, it does look more like a Shewa Opal (right color, nodule) and, if so, you've got a rare and beautiful example. Most Shewas have little or no play of color and many fracture lines. Whichever it is, Welo or Shewa, it's beautiful and probably well worth whatever you paid for it.
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 9:44 pm Posts: 711 Location: Las Vegas
I have only ever had a few of the Ethiopian stuff craze on me, i cut allot of the stuff for local jewelers as it is a cheep replacement stone for them. The setting did nothing for these stones, the stones really did pop too! with the Ethiopian stuff, when its bad its lifeless but when its good, it's really good firecracker opal!
_________________ Life is to short to worry about what others think of you.
The above posting was the first paper I found on Welo Opal. I'd been buying rough since April, 2010 and by November 2011, had had some success removing matrix by dry grinding. The opal is extremely tolerant of heat caused by grinding dry. The only other opal I was aware of that could withstand dry grinding was Honduran Boulder Opal.
In my subsequent testing of Welo I found inconsistencies with some of their test results. All my opal nodules turn transparent when wet, most lose their play of color, and about 10% lost their surface luster during the early stages of drying. However, every one got their play of color and body color back within one hour (510 pieces), every one of the ones that lost their surface luster regained it within four hours, and their play of color perked up nicely, probably due to getting their moisture content up to the proper levels. Drying time is affected by area humidity, so times in places like Florida and Mississippi will be longer than here in Southern Nevada.
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