Australian Opal

Hi folks,

I have been researching opal because I am going to learn how to cut
opal and make jewelry. It is really difficult to find wholesale
sources.

I live in Australia if anyone had any information or recommendations
of clubs for cutting opal. I know a fair bit about opal but have no
idea ho to cut it etc.

I am also after sources of Australian opal wholesale, a tough ask. I
did find an excellent site - http://www.queen-of-gems.com with a large
range of opal owned by Australian miners.

Anyone had similar experience,

Advice/ Help appreciated

Dave Holbeck

A good place to start is looking at your Yellow Pages under clubs and look for
some lapidary clubs
in your area. From memory, and if you happen to be in Victoria, there's a very
large one in the
Nunawading/Mitcham area.

For rough and polished stones Andrew Cody Opals ( http://www.codyopal.com/ ,
again in Melbourne) is
worth having a chat to, however most suppliers are trade only. Your best bet for
finding good rough
at a reasonable price is to chat to people in the lapidary clubs.

--
Dale Porter
*Add .au to e-mail address to respond*

"Must Not" wrote in message
...
Hi folks,

I have been researching opal because I am going to learn how to cut
opal and make jewelry. It is really difficult to find wholesale
sources.

I live in Australia if anyone had any information or recommendations
of clubs for cutting opal. I know a fair bit about opal but have no
idea ho to cut it etc.

I am also after sources of Australian opal wholesale, a tough ask. I
did find an excellent site - http://www.queen-of-gems.com with a large
range of opal owned by Australian miners.

Anyone had similar experience,

Advice/ Help appreciated

Dave Holbeck

Must Not wrote:
Hi folks,

I have been researching opal because I am going to learn how to cut
opal and make jewelry. It is really difficult to find wholesale
sources.

I live in Australia if anyone had any information or recommendations
of clubs for cutting opal. I know a fair bit about opal but have no
idea ho to cut it etc.

I am also after sources of Australian opal wholesale, a tough ask. I
did find an excellent site - http://www.queen-of-gems.com with a large
range of opal owned by Australian miners.

Anyone had similar experience,

Advice/ Help appreciated

Dave Holbeck

If its of any help ill relate my experiene on how I started out in 1968.
I wanted like you to do something special altho In my case I wanted to
do enamelling like Faberge.
So your motives are sound and youve a long way to go just like I did.
As you know opals are mined in your country at Cooper Pedy, which is
nearer where ever you live in Australia than the distance from where I
live to Vienna where Faberge obtained his enamels.
I went to see Schauer & co in Vienna to learn all I could about their
products and history 3 times in my 1st 2 yearsof starting to enamel, to
replicate Faberge's quality of results on gold and silver. My target for
quality.
So I suggest you make the journey to the mines yourself , get to know
the miners, see for yourself what they have to offer.
Go with real money in your pocket youll be able to do deals better
there than via the internet.Probably saving the cost of getting there in
your first purchase. If I was a miner id be happy to sell direct for
real money ie cash, which allways talks the best.
Having established face to face contact with the miners youll be in the
best position to buy more as your skill and experience grows.
youll need of course to do all the research into the actual cutting of
the opal stone, making the doublets or triplets so im told. thats
another hill for you to climb, apart from any metal weorking skills
youll need.
good luck and keep us posted how you get on.

"Ted Frater" wrote .
As you know opals are mined in your country at Cooper Pedy,

As well as Lightning Ridge, Andamooka and Mintabie. Along with a few smaller
mining areas that only
produce relatively small amounts. Other countries also produce opal, but no-where
near the quantity
nor quality that we have here.

Coober Pedy produces mainly white and "jelly" opals, Lightning Ridge is where the
highly prized
black opals are found and Andamooka has the fascinating "Matrix" opals.

I'd highly recommend Ted's advise and go see the mining towns for yourself. If
you're lucky (like I
was when I went to Lightning Ridge as a lad) you may get to go down a mine and
see the opal and
potch in it's natural environment. I'm not sure how buying opals works in Coober
Pedy, but in
Lightning Ridge most of the trading is done by "runners", people who sell both
rough and finished
opals on behalf of the miners. I'll never forget one runner flipping through
hundreds of zip-lock
bags she had in her many pockets to show me a stunning black, harlequin patterned
opal worth
AUS$20,000. - and it was no bigger than an Australian 20 cent piece.

That was Lightning Ridge price. Generally speaking once opals left the town they
were worth 3-4
times as much, and outside Australia, even more.

--
Dale Porter
*Add .au to e-mail address to respond*

When I visited Coober Pedy, I was able to spend a day just noodling through
pile of spoil/tailings for free. I found enough small (low quality probably)
to keep me happy...they cleaned up alright and made nice little trinkets for
friends.

Winter is the best time to be there........summer is unbearably scorching
hot. You can get scalded by the water coming from the cold tap!!!

good luck
Drew

"Dale Porter" wrote in message
...
"Ted Frater" wrote .
As you know opals are mined in your country at Cooper Pedy,

As well as Lightning Ridge, Andamooka and Mintabie. Along with a few
smaller
mining areas that only
produce relatively small amounts. Other countries also produce opal, but
no-where
near the quantity
nor quality that we have here.

Coober Pedy produces mainly white and "jelly" opals, Lightning Ridge is
where the
highly prized
black opals are found and Andamooka has the fascinating "Matrix" opals.

I'd highly recommend Ted's advise and go see the mining towns for
yourself. If
you're lucky (like I
was when I went to Lightning Ridge as a lad) you may get to go down a mine
and
see the opal and
potch in it's natural environment. I'm not sure how buying opals works in
Coober
Pedy, but in
Lightning Ridge most of the trading is done by "runners", people who sell
both
rough and finished
opals on behalf of the miners. I'll never forget one runner flipping
through
hundreds of zip-lock
bags she had in her many pockets to show me a stunning black, harlequin
patterned
opal worth
AUS$20,000. - and it was no bigger than an Australian 20 cent piece.

That was Lightning Ridge price. Generally speaking once opals left the
town they
were worth 3-4
times as much, and outside Australia, even more.

--
Dale Porter
*Add .au to e-mail address to respond*

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:09:16 GMT, "Andrew Mahoney"
wrote:

When I visited Coober Pedy, I was able to spend a day just noodling through
pile of spoil/tailings for free. I found enough small (low quality probably)
to keep me happy...they cleaned up alright and made nice little trinkets for
friends.

"Scuse the interruption from someone who knows nothing about opals -
except I have one. Just how are they cleaned up, and how can they be
worked? Are they faceted? Can they be tumbled to a polish? I'd hate to
mess up what could be a good thing. (BTW, it's about .5 oz or 15+
grams and 1.8 inches at the longest and an inch at the widest
measurements, black, and quite pretty.)
Blessed be, for sure...

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 08:14:33 -0700, in ?? Jim
wrote:

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:09:16 GMT, "Andrew Mahoney"
wrote:

When I visited Coober Pedy, I was able to spend a day just noodling through
pile of spoil/tailings for free. I found enough small (low quality probably)
to keep me happy...they cleaned up alright and made nice little trinkets for
friends.

"Scuse the interruption from someone who knows nothing about opals -
except I have one. Just how are they cleaned up, and how can they be
worked? Are they faceted? Can they be tumbled to a polish? I'd hate to
mess up what could be a good thing. (BTW, it's about .5 oz or 15+
grams and 1.8 inches at the longest and an inch at the widest
measurements, black, and quite pretty.)
Blessed be, for sure...

Uh...that last bit of your description is worth hanging on for a sec. Black, and
quite pretty... That, plus your size, which is rather a large opal, leaves open
some significant possibilities. If the body color of the opal itself, not just
surrounding matrix or dirt, is indeed grey or black, and the stone has decent or
better play of color, then you could be sitting on a stone with rather
significantly high value. You say you know nothing about opals. Might I suggest
that in the interest both of mercy to the stone, and avoiding the risk of
destroying or reducing it's potential, that you take it to a professional
lapidary, one who's experienced in opal cutting, for an opinion or help, before
trying to fashion it yourself. Just a thought... While some chunks of what could
be called black opal the size you describe might be worth only a few dollars,
other chunks, especially if you can really call it black, and quite pretty, might
be worth thousands. Or more. Be sure you know what you've got before jumping
in.

For the record, opals CAN be facetted, but it's not common. facetting is
generally used for transparent, to at least transluscent stones, where light can
travel internally and is then able to bounce off back facets to reflect again to
the viewer. Some opals are clear enough for this to work, especially the red to
orange jelly or "fire" opals, often from mexico, but some australian (and other)
stones as well. But the vast majority of opals are cut as cabochon styles,
ground and polished with smooth curves. the resulting lack of sharp corners
between facets, among other things, is less fragile, and it's much easier to do
in any case. Still, given opals potential value, and the need to properly orient
the stone for best play of color, as well as not cutting through the areas that
display the best colors, and the fact that opals can be both brittle and prone to
cracking anc chipping when cutting, and are a bit sensative to heat (as in
mounting on a dop stock with dop wax), It's often best to initially practice and
learn opal cutting with inexpensive practice grades. as to tumbling, almost any
stone CAN be tumbled, if you've got the right setup, but opals brittleness, and
potential value, usually suggest against it. Hard to maximize the value of a
stone with a tumbled finish, and if it's value is not high enough to warrant
other treatment, then likely, it's not much worth tumbling either. If you tumble
opals, you'll need to tumble it only with other opal or other material of similar
softness, and you'll need substantial amounts of something, such as wood or
plastic pellets, to cushion the stones to avoid chipping them. Similar to
tumbling apache tears...

Peter

"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote
(BTW, it's about .5 oz or 15+
grams and 1.8 inches at the longest and an inch at the widest
measurements, black, and quite pretty.)
Blessed be, for sure...

Uh...that last bit of your description is worth hanging on for a sec. Black, and
quite pretty... That, plus your size, which is rather a large opal, leaves open
some significant possibilities. If the body color of the opal itself, not just
surrounding matrix or dirt, is indeed grey or black, and the stone has decent or
better play of color, then you could be sitting on a stone with rather
significantly high value. You say you know nothing about opals. Might I suggest
that in the interest both of mercy to the stone, and avoiding the risk of
destroying or reducing it's potential, that you take it to a professional
lapidary, one who's experienced in opal cutting, for an opinion or help, before
trying to fashion it yourself. Just a thought... While some chunks of what could
be called black opal the size you describe might be worth only a few dollars,
other chunks, especially if you can really call it black, and quite pretty, might
be worth thousands. Or more. Be sure you know what you've got before jumping
in.


Absolutely! Don't go fiddling with a stone just for the sake of it when it may
well be worth a bit
as is. You could seriously devalue it.

What sort of colours are there in the stone? Predominantly blue/green, or mostly
red? Red is the
more highly valued colour in opals, although a vibrant blue/green colour play can
out value a dull
red. But if the red is quite vibrant then you could be looking at some serious
dollars.

The pattern of the colours will have an affect on the value as well.

--
Dale Porter
*Add .au to e-mail address to respond*

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:14:39 GMT, Jim
wrote:



"Thanx Muchly", Peter and Dale, for the input. Believe me - I won't
try any of my amateurish work on this; it sounds like I have something
worthwhile here. The color play is split almost 50/50 between red and
bluish-green, and the colors sre certainly not dull. The gemologist
who identified the stone for me offered to cut and mount part of the
stone for me at no cost, if she could have what was left. I think I'll
hang on to it a while; it hardly cost me anything, and it may
appreciate more in the future. Thanks again!

Blessed be, for sure...

On , in ?? Jim wrote:

The gemologist
who identified the stone for me offered to cut and mount part of the
stone for me at no cost, if she could have what was left.

That might have been a good offer. Either good for you, or perhaps VERY good for
the gemmologist. Trouble with it is that it represents a conflict of interest,
if this is also the person who you ask to describe the worth of the stone.
Better to first be sure you know what it's worth, then negotiate a cash price to
work the stone, with you getting all scraps. THEN, if you wish, you can sell the
scraps. But that should be a seperate transaction, decided only AFTER the main
stone is cut.

It is common, by the way, both in opal and other stones, that a rough stone will
have only part of the stone be really good, so often cutting the rough will be
best when significant parts of the lesser quality material is removed to yeild a
smaller, but higher quality stone. But how much to remove, and how much to
retain needs to be made as a choice of how to maximize the stone, not on whether
the cutter is anticipating getting to keep the remains as payment, a situation
which might radically alter decisions on how much to retain in the main stone.
Like I said, a major conflict of interest...

First: Get a proper appraisal, for which you might pay a prenegotiated cash
price, describing the probable final worth of the best possible cut stone from
the rough, as well as predicted worth of left overs. The person doing this
should be an expert in opals, possibly someone who specializes in cutting them
and is familier with selling prices as well. You might have to hunt a bit for
such a person..

Only after this is done, then decide whether to cut it, and how to maximize the
return. The subject of the cutter getting any remains should not be suggested at
all. State that you might have other plans for smaller stones from the remains,
so the cutter will not be tempted to keep parts. Be willing to pay top dollar
for the cutting, if needed, as this is the part that makes or breaks the stone,
and it's value.

After the stone is cut, you then can consider where to go from there, both in
terms of making jewelry with it, or selling parts.

Breaking down the whole process into discrete steps like this, will best preserve
the value of the stone, and maximize your options.

Peter