Opal (var: Opal-AN) / (var: Hyalite Opal) (“Blood Vessel Opal”)

Wow, I was impressed when I saw this piece as the sheer aesthetics are almost unheard of for the material. Typically, it’s impossible for these Hyalites to form in such a pleasing three-dimensional shape, but this piece breaks the mold. Not only is it incredibly showy, but it has a wide range of colors starting with a fiery orange-red hue on one end which grades across the specimen into nearly colorless / pale golden color and is actually opaque WHITE at the base. The gemmier portions of the piece have great luster and that classic “glass-bead” like appearance that is well known in Hyalite. For an added touch, there’s even a contrast of textures on the piece, where some of the globules are smooth and glassy, while others have a coarse surface. Lastly, the richer colored areas are a textbook example of the “Blood Vessel Opal” from this locality where the iron oxide inclusions have formed thin lines near the surface to give it an almost organic appearance. Very good quality and highly displayable. Only minor damage, mostly on the back / sides of the piece.

At the beginning of 2016, a friend of ours started working a claim with a few of the locals in the state of San Luis Potosi for this fine quality Hyalite Opal. It's very exciting to see specimens of this calibre coming out of the ground, as most of the Opal from this area is not nearly as attractive or fine quality as the pieces in this lot. I apologize for not having a more specific locality, but our friend doesn't want to divulge the information yet as he is trying to keep it under wraps until he feels that he was able to collect everything.

Our friend dubbed some of the colored material “blood vessel” Opal due to the interesting red/orange “capillary”-esque lines that can be seen in many of the specimens. Essentially, the Opals themselves are colorless, but minute inclusions of what I’m assuming is iron oxide have created not only beautiful internal color, but the thin “blood vessel” patterns.

Like most Hyalite specimens, these new pieces from Mexico show a brilliant glowing green fluorescence under SW UV light.

Finally, for years this material was referred to as "Hyalite" Opal, but is now listed as a variety of Opal called Opal-AN. It is now defined specifically as an amorphous (often colorless) form of Opal that is found in spherical aggregates, which are often intergrown or stacked with a "bead"-like appearance. For reference, mindat.org states that: "The "A" in the name stands for amorphous; the subscript "N" is to imply its structure is network-like, similar to silica glass; however, it still contains about 3-8% water".

** PLEASE NOTE: We use professional grade UV lights to photograph all of our pieces, which are pure UV and more powerful than virtually any UV lights that can be purchased at retail stores. Lights purchased outside of scientific suppliers often have mixed wave bulbs with a much lower wattage, and not all minerals (including Opal) fluoresce under different UV waves. For example, these particular Hyalite Opals show strong green fluorescence under short wave UV but almost no fluorescence under long wave. Therefore, they do not fluoresce well under mixed wave lights.

Specimen # HYALMEX41610