What exactly is play of color? Is it unique to opal—and how can you tell? This week, Justin dives into what play of color means across different gemstones, and why opal’s version is truly one of a ...
This week Justin has some bad luck with a piece of nobby opal that looked promising but ended up a bit of fail! Then he decided to try one more piece… which opal has the better gem?Justin starts wi...
Justin’s back this week and he’s got something on his mind… welcome to the opal color rant. In the early days of opals discovery, when someone stumbled across a gorgeous gem that resembled a rainb...
Justin explains the dangers of opal cutting and his change from sandpaper to the Nova wheel; why change? What difference does it make? And how did it help that annoying cough he used to get?!In th...
Last week I explained in detail the features of rough opal nobbies and what to look out for. This week I’ll show you exactly what we get out of the piece of rough opal by cutting that very piece.We...
FANTASTIC NEWS! The Australian Opal Centre (AOC), an icon for outback Australia and the home of all things opal has been funded! The local, state and federal governments have come together after al...
I’ve been cutting some new nobby rough opal from Lightning Ridge. I thought it be good to share some of the unique features of these type of formations. I’ve selected an example to work on in the i...
So many times now I have taken a video of a rough opal that I’ve cut and polished. For once I wanted to show you how opal can have a mind of its own and even with all my experience I can still get ...
The latest edition of InColor magazine is here with not one but two articles by Black Opal Direct! InColor is the magazine produced by the International Colored Gemstone Association, of which we ar...