BS: I love opals

Subject: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:21 PM

Not the car but the 30 million year old sedimentary rock.

.....
Opal is a noncrystalline form of the mineral silica which, despite its amorphous structure, displays an amazing degree of internal organization. Opal is related to its more commonly found but highly crystalline cousins quartz and agate, and is formed from amorphous "balls" or lumps" of silica rather that from ordered, naturally faceted crystals.

The chemical composition of opal is SiO2H2O, silicon dioxide combined with water (an opal stone may contain up to 30% water.) The silicate minerals in the stone add to its weight, giving it a specific gravity ranging from 1.98 to 2.5 times that of pure water. Opal's scratch hardness is measured at 6.0 to 6.5 on the Mohs' scale, similar in hardness to quartz, a little more than halfway between the hardness of talc and diamond.

Most opal is more than 60 million years old and generally dates back to the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

It is found near the earth's surface in areas where ancient geothermal hot springs once flowed. The minerals bubbled up from beneath the surface of the earth and slowly, over the centuries, lined the walls of cracks, vents and underground cavities in the bedrock. Most opal is found where geothermal hot springs dried up during seasonal periods of rainfall and extended dry periods.

More than 90% of the world's quality gem opals come from Southern Australia, although it can be found in other parts of the world such as Brazil, Mexico, Czechoslovakia and Nevada. All black opals come exclusively from Australia.

The story of opal inn Australia begins more than million years ago when the deserts of central Australia were a great inland sea, with silica-laden sediment deposited around its shoreline. After the sea receded and disappeared to become the great Artesian basin, weathering 30 million years ago released a lot of the silica into a solution which filled cracks in the rocks, layers in clay, and even some fossils. Some of the silica became precious opal. Opal is one of the few gemstones that is sedimentary in origin. The water in opal is a remnant of that ancient sea.

The most striking quality of opal is its ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light. In fact, the term "opalescence" was coined to describe this phenomenon. The size and spacing of the amorphous spheres of silica within the stone refracts specific wavelengths of light; each sphere refracting a single, pure spectral color much like the individual microscopic droplets of water in a rainbow. The interplay of these pure wavelengths of light gives opal its unique visual appeal, and makes it one of the most sought-after gemstones in the world.

........


My favorites are the opals in matrix. Like land scapes or a piece of the sky with clouds and sunshine they can depict anything.

My grandmother was a rock hound and collected so many interesting things including fossils. I have quartz with a big dragonfly in it and another crystal with water droplets that bobble back and forth inside that might be 22 million years old.

Today I bought a 2 lbs meteor. Not as pretty as an opal but striking in its metallic blue grey specs brought out by polishing.

Beauty is all that matters to me since I am not a minerologist or geologist. I have a crystal that has inclusions that look like an Amish couple getting married. If you saw it you would immediately agree. What is most appealing are the accidents of nature in certain crystals and opals and not a perfect same color gem.

Do you have a wierd or wonderful rock ?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:24 PM

Oh, do I! Off to bed right now, but I'll post in a day or two. Great subject!

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bert
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:26 PM

...and is formed from amorphous "balls" or lumps"... Sounds a bit like our Spaw to me.


Do you have a wierd or wonderful rock ?

I've got some Desert roses and a couple of Dammam diamonds somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:41 PM

I have lots of weird and wonderful rocks here, including some opal mixed in with chalcedony that my brother gave me after a field trip to eastern Washington (state) where they picked this up. We both studied geology in college and spent a lot of years mountain climbing, so we were able to pick up a lot of interesting stuff out in the field.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bert
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:44 PM

The only thing I've picked up out in a field was...
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Mushrooms.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:17 AM

No strawberry fields..
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forever, Bert?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:29 AM

Opals are not Opels. One Opel is worth few opals. Is there still an Opel somewhere being produced?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: open mike
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:49 AM

Yes i had one in my wedding ring many moons ago
it was cracked when i worked at a landscaping job
they are fragile. I remember hearing that it is
good to soak them in water to retain their "opalecence"

they have an amazing ability to reflect rainbows of
color. there is an open mine in Spencer Idaho
here is one for sale...want one? the mine, that is...
http://www.idopalmine.com/default.htm

also in winnemucca nevada http://www.royalpeacock.com/

if your search for opalescence you find some sort of
toothpaste

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:05 AM

I love Opals too, but they renamed them Starburst...

























It's a popular, fruit-flavoured chewy sweet in the UK.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:33 AM

made to make the mouth water!

:-)

Opals are rather gorg - especially the ones termed as Black opals - like a burst of colour, they are gorg

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 08:46 AM

The great thing is you can get them from Thailand for 25 to 200 dollars while the market here is ridiculously high. I have seen ebay opals sold from down under for 100 and similar stones here being offered for 5,000 to 40,000 dollars...which they will never get unless a sucker is born every second.

I met a grand master jewler who specialized in Aussie opal gems. He made a necklace of translucent pure plue opal he found under a small airstrip in the dessert. It was bluer than anything I have ever seen.
These stones were all uniform but a blue so intense it chould be the "blue standard". He asked $250,000 for the necklace but put anything made of diamonds to shame.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 09:08 AM

You can go up to Spencer and carry them away in buckets -- just stay on public land.

They crack because the water inside dries out. Nowadays opals are polished and then sealed with a very thin coat of plastic resin so they DON'T dry out.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 09:34 AM

I have a large hagstone which I found on the shore of Lake Erie. It is shaped like a buffalo and has the texture of a chocolate chip cookie. My brother hid it in a batch of cookies once and it wasn't noticed until someone picked it up.

Still hasn't been unpacked since my move.

I also have a a bit of a stone wall from the Temple at Ashwan. It has some spear tips still visible on it.

And a stone from Tibet with Om Mane Padme Om inscribed on it by a very young monk who was pleased to know enough English to explain to me what it was.

Opals are my favorite stones. I love black opals and have two. One with green and yellow fire in it. Years ago people thought it was a Mood Ring. The other is almost black with red and green fire. Both came from Austraslia in the 70s. One a purchase; the other a gift.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 09:35 AM

I bet Spencer has those Peach yellow and pink opals.
The blue balck and red ones tend to be found in Oz.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 10:51 AM

I have a small concretion picked up on the beach over at Squim Bay State Park in Washington state when I was a kid. It is exactly the shape, size, and color of a tennis ball. I used to have it on my desk in college with some other rocks and minerals picked up working in the woods and as a mountain climber. I always enjoyed the surprise when people went to pick up that ball (exerting the amount of lift needed for a hollow ball), only to do a kind of muscular double take when it was much heavier and more dense than expected.

SRS

BTW: that beach was littered with all sorts of concretions, various sizes, many of them cracked open when they dislodged from the muddy bank where they formed beside the water. It resembled the "horta" episode of the old Star Trek series.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 10:52 AM

Anyone remember the National Geographic about opal mines in Australia? It showed some miners living in the mines which were huge, open spaces filled with opalescence. I was fascinated. Opal is my oldest daughter's birthstone. She was so wishy-washy at one point, as a teen, I made her take them off as they were just increasing her dithering energies.:-)

I have a rock which a tree branch formed around. My mom found it. It's a small piece of wood, now, maybe 10-12 inches, with the rock sticking out of it, kind of like a knot. I also have an ancient rock from the age of fossils, which is kind of ripply top and bottom, shaped loosely like a buffalo. Such stones were sacred to Native Americans. One of my favourite stones is a piece of Ionian marble a Mudcatter sent me and also a necklace with polished carnelian gathered off the coast, cut and polished by Jon Freeman who put it in the auction; my sister bought it for me.

I have a whole tray of very special polished semi-precious and rough stones, as well as several rings and necklaces made up of them. My design company was known as StonePeople Designs...so rocks have always been very important to me.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Ythanside
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 02:46 PM

While driving through outback Queensland I passed what I thought were smallish lumps of coal strewn along the roadside. Only when I stopped to stretch my legs did I discover that they were fossilised sections of wood and surprisingly heavy. I kept one, and still use it as a paperweight.
On the same trip I tried gold panning in New South Wales and opal noodling in Coober Pedy and found absolutely nowt, which gives me agreat excuse for a return trip.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Becca72
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 03:29 PM

Opals are also my favorite stone. Every time I drool over them in the jewelry store my sister reminds me of the old wives' tale that they are supposedly bad luck if they are not your birthstone. I don't care, I have tons. I also like my birthstone, Garnet.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 03:42 PM

I love garnet cabachons. They look like gummy candy to me.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: bankley
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 04:31 PM

how do they taste ?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 04:38 PM

I have 4 stones from my mother....in a little box. Written in the lid is
Topaz, Garnet, Opal and 'green', together with origins....and I would not take bets which is which. I will try to take a pic of the 4 together.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: open mike
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 04:45 PM

opal noodling?

There is one stone about which is said
"It is unlucky to buy it for yourself,
but lucky if it is a gift" I wonder if
this is about Opals?

here are some web pages with info:
several of them mention Sir Walter Scott's Novel
Anne of Geierstein which features an unlucky opal.

"The heroine of the novel has her life force caught
in the beautiful opal she wears in her hair and she
dies when the fire in the opal is extinguished."

"The life of the stone was bound up with the life of
Hermione; it sparkled when she was gay, it shot out
red gleams when she was angry; and when a few drops
of holy water were sprinkled over it, they quenched
its radiance. Hermione fell into a swoon, was carried
to her chamber, and the next day nothing but a heap
of ashes remained on the bed where she had been laid."

http://www.jewellers.net/opals.htm
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/sep01/opal.cfm
http://www.jjkent.com/articles/history-folklore-opals.htm
http://jewelry.suite101.com/article.cfm/november_s_birthstone___opal
http://www.tjsource.net/birthstones.html

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 04:52 PM

I'd like to see that picture, BillD. Is the green opaque or see-through?


Petrified wood goes for big bucks up here, if you slice it and polish it. You can dig it yourself at about a dollar per pound and make back a bunch, if you do as I said.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:37 PM

one of the stones is oval, flat on the bottom, and vaguely greenish...one is not shaped - just rough polished and has a dark greenish color when you hold it up to the light....light goes thru it, but it looks almost black in the box.
I'll get the pic later.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 06:01 PM

Ok...here they are from quick snapshots.

the box with the 4

holding the rough one above a light source (It is sort of greenish-amber...I didn't work to find a pure white light source)

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 06:19 PM

Bill, I'm not a Kiwi (although I had a Kiwi grandmother) but I wouldn't mind betting that the green stone which is labelled "New Zealand So. Island" inside your box lid is what the Maori call greenstone, a form of jade. It's a beautiful colour. It has great spiritual significance to the Maori and is found on the west coast of the South Island, among other places.

I am lucky enough to have an opal necklace - several years ago I was matron of honour at friends' wedding, and as a thank-you gift I was given three opals. My friend lived for several years at Lightning Ridge and knows her opals. I had them set in a necklace, the largest one in the centre on a fine gold chain with the two smaller ones hanging from it. It's valued at huge numbers of dollars because the opals are very fine. I always feel special when I wear it.

My birthstone is emerald - I love green - I have a ring with real emeralds, and tiny emerald flower-shaped earrings.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:44 AM

Your page is unavialable right now (maintenance, the page says). I'll just comment that any of those stones can come in a green form (topaz and garnet included).

Green garnets beside reddish. (Here's another--with apparently some green garnet in with the pearls and findings. More normal than what look like dyed stones in many of the other images.)

Google on green topaz (I'm being scolded by my cat that it's time to quit this nonsense and head to bed. You'll have to find the best sample for yourselves!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 02:55 AM

I like 'fire opals' which literally express a fiery look as they are dark coloured with bright red/orange/yellow inclusions. They are also commanding the highest prices of all opals on the market.
My favourite stone is amethyst in its natural form...split open the rock and there are the many crystals in small or huge form.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: mouldy
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 09:01 AM

I love 'em too. (I love all sorts of gems).
I have some nice green opals in earrings, pendant and a ring, and some black opal studs, which fire red. I also have a necklace of little round green opal beads, which glow pinky red in the sunlight.
However, I indulged in a SERIOUSLY expensive pendant last autumn. I think it would class as a black opal - it's big: 3cm long, by 2cm, tapering to 1.5cm. It's about 0.5cm thick. It is deep, deep blue, and has the most amazing neon flashes of royal blue, turquoise, red and green when the light gets it. I took one look at it and fell in love.

I have got a Brazilian Fire opal, which is pretty, but it's more like a citrine. Doesn't have the fire.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 10:51 AM

Those sound beautiful, Mouldy!

Billdarlin'...hard to tell much from those photos. Besides the topaz and garnets that SRS linked to, the other green stones that come to mind include tourmaline, peridot (I think SRS's link had one of them), and bloodstone, though the latter is opaque. Of course, there's emeralds, too, as noted above.

Here are a few pix: Click.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 11:26 AM

How about these being sold on Ebay?
Scroll down for larger pics and tis guys other items of fire opals.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 12:06 PM

I can see your box now. That green looks like jade. One of the reason stones like that are given the cab shape is because they don't have a crystal matrix that lends itself to faceting. They're too soft to hold those sharp edges. Jade/serpentine/talc (ordered hard to soft) are from the metamorphic portion of the olivine family of minerals, that can be solid, flaky, or kind of fibrous. (There are actually two families of minerals that the generic "jade" comes from.) One classic crystal form for serpentine is an elongated but domed shape. Peridote is an igneous crystaline form of olivine.

You can kind of see the shape I mentioned here and here. I sketched the shape on the back of a printout and tossed onto the scanner a crystal shape for serpentine (the sort found in Washington's Cascade mountains). Whether disk or elongated, the gentle sloping hump of the stone is distinctive. I have a piece around here that I picked up because it was the classic crystal shape, but I can't find it to photograph or I wouldn't have to sketch it. I also have some jade I picked up in the area.

I distracted myself with my side trip down a serpentine alley (so to speak!) You have some beautiful stones--you should do something with them other than leaving them closed up in a box.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 12:22 PM

http://www.thaigemstore.net/im01/0405125-1big.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: open mike
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:04 PM

Serpentine...these hills are filled with it.
Serpentine is to Jade as coal is to diamonds..
With more heat and more pressure and the more
precious stone is formed.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 02:07 PM

Where are you? Serpentine is apparently the California state rock (I found that in my image search). It's probably all through the coastal and Cascade ranges.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 07:15 PM

thanks, folks...I only remembered those stones when this thread came up. (My Mother acquired them from a childhood friend who traveled all over the world) Maybe I will get them appraised locally. I sometimes inlay stone in my woodworking, but these are not the kind that fit what I do.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 09:20 PM

I am thinking of selling our 2 lb meteorite

Is there a market for such things?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 10:36 PM

I loved Opal fruits and if memory serves me right, they were different flavors from the strawberry, cherry, orange and lemon Starburst chews. I am convinced one of the Opal Fruits was green (instead of the cherry one).

Love OPALS too - my sister has one of the prettiest engagement rings i have ever seen and it is a circle of opals round a large opal in the center. Truly lovely.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 02:11 AM

Donuel...people on Ebay will buy anything and some of the prices raised for 'unusual' items have amazed me.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:25 PM

Meteorites are sold regularly...some for quite high prices. There are standard venues for dealing in them.

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 10:12 PM

Here is an Opal I call the Blue Lagoon

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/10060508/Images/YA34834-1.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 11:44 PM

Donuel--that is lovely....

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 04:39 AM

Opals are said to be unlucky because they crack and shrink. The stones were often lost out of their settings....therefore being unlucky. My partner doesn't particular like setting opals because of this but he has made some lovely pieces.

I love opals and I've got some gorgeous ones but one ring that has 3 opals in it has a crack in one of the stones.

I was drooling over some very pretty and absolutely stunning opals the other day while I was up Hatton Garden picking up some silver and clasps for Paul. Beautiful stones!

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: mouldy
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 05:09 AM

...erm......I have just ordered another off Gems TV. Well I have very big hands and there was this gents ring that I knew would fit me, and it had a Mintabie opal in, and I know they're pretty, 'cos I already got some, and I know it'll suit me 'cos I got the same setting with an emerald in, and, and...........oh hell, I just LOVE jewellery!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 05:10 AM

Sounds lovely Andrea! you can never have too much jewellery!!

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 09:02 AM

I just bought an opal that looks just like a lovely Camoroon woman with white headress and robes. When they look like a painting or a landscape.

Here is a 7 lb opal that looks like a small waterfall.
THe guy wants over $2,000 but you know thats not bad, unless its stolen.   http://i17.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/d2/bc/7565_3.JPG

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 09:04 AM

he he it looks like the "face" on Mars

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 11:02 AM

Remember Opals are 30% WATER! They are quite organic in that sense.

If they dry out they will crack more easily but some lines can be repaired or even help the play of light.

There are some geologic conditions at Yellowstone they strike me as being similar to the Queensland Australian opal fields.
I wonder if there are Yellowstone opals?

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 11:11 AM

Turns out there are no precious opals in Yellowstone but there are vast Opal A particulant formations in springs and pools http://www.fotosearch.com/DSN011/1783252/

Subject: RE: BS: I love opals
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 01:50 PM

Link to Donuels suggested site