Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Very nice

Yes, that's going to be a good one with that red fire glowing in there. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. Do you have plans to use it in jewelry?

cool ! thanks for posting
I wanted to buy some stayish material for tests but every time ended buying something else LOL

how much opal was inside the clay matrix ? in the video rough look like there is nice color bar going inside but after cutting it apear that fire was only on the surface - is that correct ?

thanks for the info
sorry to hear that 1 piece broke - did you see the cracks when cutting or it came up later ?
btw. when you cut welo rubs the best way is to remove all the clay matrix because sometimes it can create cracks when drying -
i know stayish is not hydrophane but I wonder how stabe is this stuff

I bought about an ounce of Stayish in Tucson in 2016. I probably need a better sample to give a proper analysis. Maybe I’ll buy a fair amount this year (if I can find it). It probably deserves a fair YouTube video. My sample had too much very black potch mixed in randomly, and everything seemed to crack up ... including me.

Shea_O wrote:I'm working on some N1 material from Ethiopia. Also, a big thing about it is It's not hydrophane. If anything it looks better when you get it wet. Next step - polish!

Since DP replied to this older thread I read through it again to refresh my memory of what was said, and it dawned on me that Shea said this was 'not hydrophane', yet he also said that if anything it looks better wet.

That made me recall that way back when we were first exploring Welos and their hydrophane characteristics on the old forum, I came across something in the literature about them that referred to the ones that look better when wet as 'reverse hydrophane', since their appearance was indeed altered when they were wet, but it made them look their very best when wet, and they were still colorful when dry; just more muted and not as brilliantly as when they're wet. One of the opals I cut for one of our cutting contests turned out to be a reverse hydrophane, but that's the only one I've found so far.

So I thought I'd mention that if there's any sort of change in appearance when they're wet, that apparently means they're still hydrophane; but perform differently when wet than the regular hydrophane opals, so reverse hydrophane sounds like a better description for them than non-hydrophane. Just my 2¢.

I'm afraid he is knee deep in sorting old collection opals and trying to master a technique that works reliably on any of them. Well all of them, wherever they were or condition started in we hoped. Patience is one thing watching opal gems mature has taught me. Not crazing yet if you start with the best rough. I'll add that if they can cure "bad level" opal, they will rejuvenate a few mining areas down under that weren't worked out due to the opal not holding up thru sale & setting.

since then I bought couple small samples and all had cracks and was unstable ...so I didn't get any more although I know some Stayish are stable.
this material is similar to Sheva but not the same .. sadly the marked for Stayish is low mostly because stability but also because it looks very similar to dyed/smocked Welo

here is old and short report from GIA about Stayish >
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winte ... m-ethiopia

I'm so sorry to hear they weren't cuttable, OS, but I have always heard that the Stayish was unstable, and only remember a handful of success stories with it, while the rest ended up with lovely fish gravel. That's why I've steered clear of them rather than go through the heartbreak of watching it crumble before my eyes. Apparently they're fine with a window to show what's in them, but freeing them from the outer casing causes most to 'explode' into bits. It's a real bummer because so many of them have fabulous colors in there that can never be liberated.

Hi all, looks like there was some activity here... and some questions..

But

I asked @PinkDiamond to delete this thread maybe a year ago and I'm still waiting. Now there are all these questions

I asked before the questions started popping up, so it's not on me that the thread still remains and people will go unsatisfied. I wanted the thread gone before the questions and I still want this thread deleted!

Anyone should be able to delete their own threads on here without admin assistance