Every opal is unique but with my help, there are a few common patterns that you’ll be able to recognise!
Today I’m going to take you through some of the stones in stock and talk about five different opal patterns.
Moss Pattern
Moss pattern is common to the Grawin Opal Fields in Lightning Ridge and shows a fairly even play of color that moves within the ‘moss’, never disappearing.
Sky Mackerel Pattern
Sky Mackerel pattern is a rare pattern that looks like the rippled clouds of a sunset sky.
Chinese Writing / Calligraphy Pattern
Chinese Writing (or Calligraphy) pattern is called so because it looks like the visual art of Chinese calligraphy within the opal. This is quite a rare pattern and one of my favorites.
Broad Flash Pattern
Broad Flash pattern shows a broad flash of color that moves across the whole stone and then disappears.
Rolling Flash Pattern
Similar to Cats Eye pattern in other gemstones, Rolling Flash pattern rolls across the face of the stone in an impressive color show.
For more information on opal patterns
very nice video Justin . some ting nieuwe learned today :-]
Thanks for the lesson 🙂
You are welcome I am glad you enjoyed
I can prolly guess…but could u rank those according to their value?
I can but the patterns won’t make the value with out other factors like brightness, color type, size and shape. So yes I could with these but another stone with similar pattern will be different again. Confusing I know but opal is just so different every time.