There are a few different types of opal. We thought it was time to create a guide, outlining opal types which will in turn help you understand the true value of opal. Black Opal Black opal is the...
Last year after a break of many years Justin and I travelled back to sunny Tucson for the annual Tucson Gem Shows that take over the city. There are over 40 shows spanning a 3 week period and the w...
Baroque opals are anything but ovals and rounds.As you’ve probably guessed we are big fans of simple ovals and rounds. Opal just seems to show its best face in these shapes but sometimes when cutti...
The 2015 Lightning Ridge Opal Festival was a great success with many sellers, tourists and buyers coming from all around the world. It seem the Chinese market is growing from strength to strength w...
Last year we brought you the story of 14 yr old Steiner Florian who told us how he cut an opal by hand. You can catch up here. We were all fascinated and the amazing Black Opal community got really...
Want to learn about opal types? This is the video for you. It’s all well and good to see an image of an opal pattern, but in order to really understand them, you must be able to see it move and eme...
Gems emerge from rough opal…Sometimes its a real challenge to work out what to do with a piece of rough opal.While Justin may be the expert, he also finds time spent examining a piece of rough is i...
In this latest video watch master cutter Justin from Black Opal Direct show you how to improve the value of opal.Justin happily shows you a gem grade Black Opal which has a visible ‘black mark’ on...
Justin heads out to Lightning Ridge to talk about how to find opal. After drilling in excess of 3000 holes in the pursuit of opal, Sebastian, our expert miner, knows a thing or two. Opal prospectin...