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- 50% off & Dropping!Opals - Opals bring good fortune and wisdom. I love cutting opals, it's like a treasure hunt. Looking for the magical colors and then bringing them carefully to the surface. There are always surprises some of them are heartbreaks, but some of them are wonderful! Opals are sometimes confused with Ammolites (Ammonite fossils). For more info, go to the Ammolite Page.
These are only a few of the Opals in stock, so let me know what you are looking for and I can get it for you or cut it myself.
Opal - October Birthstone Opal Jewelry Inlaid Opal Jewelry
OPAL - October Birth Stone
Opal, derived from the Greek word "Opallios", means to observe color change and observe a color change you will, for its coloration marches spectacularly through a dazzling spectrum of riches. Ranging between semi-transparent to opaque, opal's most adoring detail has to be its ability to bend and reflect light into flashes of multiple colors. This feature has become widely known as "play of color" and no gemstone expert will argue that Australian opals are the undisputed masters.
Prior to a clever man inventing the electron microscope, the causal effects of this enchanting play of color weren't fully understood. Unlike most other gemstones, opal doesn't contain a crystal structure per se, though some opals do possess a loosely ordered structure. Aligned grids and chains of tiny silica spheres are packed densely enough to trigger beautiful optical effects.
These tiny spheres display iridescence or play of color by splitting light into its component colors of the spectrum – the color we see depends on the size of these silica spheres. Larger spheres produce hues from the red end of the spectrum, smaller spheres yield shades from the blue end, and the strength of the color is governed by just how densely packed and orderly the grids and chains are.
Today 95% of the world's opal is sourced from a handful of prominent mining areas in Australia, namely Lightening Ridge, Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabe. But before these points on the map came into play, this iridescent gemstone had already captured the hearts of those on the other side of the world.
Historically, many cultures have long seen opal as a colorful magnet attracting all that is beautiful, uplifting and successful. Scandinavian women still wear to this day opal hair bands to ward off the onset of grey hair and maintain their lustrous blonde locks. Members of the Arab community held belief that opal would prevent lightening strike and shield its wearer from any undesirable elements in their day to day lives. Others saw this gemstone as a therapeutic aid that would rejuvenate the inner spirit and invigorate the mind. However, it was East Africa that first put opal on the map when ancient opal artifacts dating back several thousand years were unearthed. The Romans were also big on opal and although the history books would have us believe their supplies came from India and the Middle East, it is far more likely that the Hungarian mines satisfied the Roman craving for beautiful opal.
As the 18th century closed its doors on time, this fine gemstone for some reason lost its appeal in Europe, and as demand petered out, the Hungarian miners packed their shovels and hard hats and took to the kitchens to make goulash instead. Almost a hundred years passed without opal making the headlines until the 1890's arrived and with it the first samples of Australian opal hit the gemstone tables. The Hungarians piped up from behind their pots of hot stew declaring defensively the all-new Australian variety was not the real thing. Gems with such a fusion of fire and color had never been seen before.
And so it came to be. The first Australian mining operation was set up in White Cliffs (New South Wales) and was soon followed by Opalton (Queensland) in 1896 with Lightning Ridge (New South Wales) opening in 1905. Australian opal had arrived and was here to stay.
It was during the First World War when the first opals were carved out of the bedrock in the now legendary Australian town of Coober Pedy, the modern day powerhouse of top class opal. Across the desert to the east, mining kicked off in the settlement of Andamooka, but didn't really gain momentum until 1946.
Of all the opal-mining towns in Australia there is none quite like Coober Pedy. Its unusual name originates from two native Australian words, Kupaka and Piti, which, when combined means "a white man in a hole." Kupaka, meaning "white man" and Piti meaning "hole", respectively derive of the native Australian languages Mutuntjarra and Antakirinja. And lots of holes there are – somewhat like a lunar landscape, craters that go on to reveal deep, dangerous mineshafts litter this area with reckless abandon.
Much larger than its mining counterparts of White Cliffs, Lightning Ridge or Andamooka, Coober Pedy is home to a diversity of people and activities set against a backdrop of one of the harshest environments in the world. Temperatures can soar to 50 degrees in summer resulting in 80% of the town's predominantly mining populace actually living underground! A Wild West town still home to Eastern European emigres, the spirit of the frontier lives on with gelignite sanctioned locals blowing up the local police station some three times in the last twenty five years!
Although somewhat overshadowed by the colorful opal, Australia is also well-known for its fancy color diamonds from the Argyll mine in the Northern Kimberley District. Chrysoprase is also mined here as well as large quantities of sapphires in New South Wales and Queensland.
While synonymous with stunning opals, the desert regions of the Australia's harsh outback are by no means holding a monopoly on opal. Perhaps better known for their rich supplies of aquamarine, amethyst, citrine, imperial topaz, emerald, tourmaline and much more, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia also provide opal to the world market. Indeed Mexican fire opals are a remarkable variety offering deep tangerine hues that have been treasured in the Americas since Aztec days.
Opals vary enormously in body color, and though white is the most frequently seen, the black variety typically pulls down the most dollars per carat as it enhances and accentuates the play of color, with blue and semi black not too far behind. So valuable is black opal that even wafer thin slices are made into doublets or triplets to give them enough strength and depth to set into gold rings and other jewelry items.
While Hungary still has its goulash and the Scandinavian women will always, I hope, hold onto that fine blond hair, some places and our perceptions of them will inevitably evolve. What was once the site of a memorable romantic holiday could next year be host to the Olympics, or even a country at war. The map will keep changing its meaning I'm sure, but at least for the foreseeable future, whenever the map of Australia presents itself, I just drift away and that scorched red land mass is replaced by the pure majesty of all encompassing, color-intense, iridescent opal.