October is Opal Birthstone

Just a reminder that your birthstone is opal if you were born in October. You could get an opal birthday gift each birthdayfor soooo many years and have each opal look entirely different. As an example: milk opal, black opal, crystal opal, fire opal, Yowah or Koroit nut opal, labgrown opal, opaalized wood, opal fossils, boulder opal, pipe opal, Adamooka matrix opal, jelly opal, Mexican opal, and sunflash opal to name a few. What a variety of looks and flash in the opal world.

Opals Natural and Labgrown

As with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds a process has been found in fact a number of processes have been found to create in a lab synthetic opal and opal simulants. Much of the inlaid opal you see in jewelry where it is combined with other stones and set in gold or silver flush with metal is lab grown these days. Gorgeous and popular and less expensive than say true natural black opal gems. Get the look without the price. Some say synthetick and labgrown creations are the gems of the future. The opal lover loves the look of both stones but those who are opal purists still seek the real, the genuine opal.

Eye Candy Opal

Milky opal with little fire still is nice but hot blazing electric fire that dances and skips about in a gorgeous mixtureof colors is the eye candy opal that brings the value up up and up. Crystal opal is sharp and crisp and fiery with the fire dancing across and emanating out of a clear crystal base opal. Hence, the crystal opal designation. Mind you there is also a classification of semi crystal opal where the base opal is not so clear but a bit foggy or darker than crystal. The different fields of Australia vie for the title "best crystal opal". I think the hottest contenders are White Cliffs crystal opal and Lightning Ridge crystal opal. Right, not all opal out of Lightning Ridge, New SouthWales is black opal. (Of course I could have the Mintabie mob of miners on my ass for saying that) Some magic crystal opal comes out of the Queensland, Australia boulder opal fields too in the form of pipe opal. Crystal opal is only one of the amazing types of opals found in the parched earth of Australia's outback. www.ParchedEarthOpals.com was named that for just that reason.

Just Convict Work:Break Big Rocks into Little Rocks

After a Yowah or Koroit Opal miner moves tons of dirt to find some ironstone nuts he/she must open them to see if they carry opal. some do this with mini hatchets, rock hammers, and saws. The hammers and hatchets do much damage if the opal is there so the saw is becoming the weapon of choice. However, this is time consuming and costly. Diamond edged blades that handle the job usually cost 50.00 US and you run thru them quickly due to the sheer numbers of ironstone concretions that must be sawed. Sooo one of the methods used by some is to break with hathcet, hammer, or if nuts are large, a sledge hammer. And there are alot of those big ones that require the sledge hammer. When opal is struck (sometimes resulting in the painful and expensive smashing of a gem) the hammer and hatchet are laid aside and all Yowah opal nuts are then sawed while mining in that pocket. The processing of Yowah and Koroit nuts is labor intensive and the payoff pf finding nuts with opal is lean. Consequently, truly beautiful gems have a price tag. Rarity and beauty and supply and demand run the opal game. The analogy to convicts' work rings true when I hear myself say, "Yes, I did ten years in the Lightning Ridge opal fields and twelve in Yowah."Sounds like prison sentences doesn't it?

The Language and Lifestyle of Opal Miners

At my website www.ParchedEarthOpals.com I try to give opal information on Koroit opal, Yowah opal, and Lightning Ridge black opal. The opal lifestyle is featured under the links Art & Books, Lifestyles, Bush Projects. The Archives also give you a peek at the miner's life. There you can learn to speak "opal". Sure this is blatant advertisement but it is all in the spirit of "spreading the opal word" the also featured catalog section is secondary, mate!

Opal is my Drug of Choice

You either can't get enough of it or it leaves ya cold. Those who love it have a need to behold it, touch it, opaldive in the sunlight with it.... all the addiction symptoms seem to apply. You sell stuff so you can get more opals, you rearrange your life for it, you spend lots of your time talking about the last one you saw or acquired and speak of future plans to get more. The miners themselves on the opal fields of Lightning Ridge hold their black opal in tiny plastic baggies and hunch over their prize in hide away corners sharing a peek with only a select few friends. My two favorite addictions is the Yowah and Koroit opal of Queensland and the black opal of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales (both in Australia) I have traded my blood, sweat, and tears there and spent 22 years trying to spread the addiction as any opal dealer should.

Siren Song of Opal Rich Australian Outback

Australia is known for producing about 95% of the world's commercial opal. It can not do this without luring many diggers of the gem from every corner of the earth. Opal's siren song sang most sweetly to me first from Lightning Ridge N. S. W. black opal fields. What a magic gem. What an enticing song. I found myself in the opal field surrounded by many individual campfires burning in the blackness of the Australian night. The fires mimicked the burn in the hearts and eyes of the men who hunkered down by them. Foreign tongues carried on an evening breeze. We all shared the same dreams of the blackest opals with red fire dancing across its face, rolling yellow flashes, and magic patterns with names like Harlequin, Chinese Writing, Cat's Eye, and Mackerel Sky. Patterns in opal have some input into their value.The siren song sustains us when the sun scorches us, thieves cheat us, and Lady Luck deserts us. Doctors, lawyers, farmers, pensioners, derelicts, and fugitives are among those drawn to search for opal that can command many thousands of dollars per carat for the prime collectors grade. Lightning Ridge black opal has the reputation for being rare and a collector's prize. Much more of it is available in jewelry shops of the world. Search www.ParchedEarthOpals.com in "archives" and "opal info" for more information.