FROM PETER

"What I love about boulder opals is the fact that they have a natural 'earthy' look to them that inspires creativity from a designers viewpoint and an originality and 'one of a kind' presentation from an end users point of view. With the amount of synthetic gemstones on the market nowadays, its nice to have something that is obviously right out of the ground. We have hundreds of rough boulder opals for sale as well as jewelry made of a boulder opal. Feel free to browse our online showroom or email me for suggestions."

-Peter
peter@opalmine.com

Opalmine Worldwide

You'd think because we are in Australia that the majority of our sales would come from here. Ironically, we get most of our online traffic from other countries. Take a look at our online traffic graph from Alexa:

United States	47.9%
United Kingdom	14.3%
Iran	14.3%
India	7.1%
Australia	7.1%

Opal Hobbyist

Working from home is the dream of many a hobbyist and with today's revolutionary communication systems, there's no reason why your hard work and fun in the garage cannot be turned into cash. Whether you are a novice or advanced cutter, we have the rough opals and opal cutting material you need to turn your opal cutting business dreams into a reality.

>See more Opal Hobbyist Info

Satisfaction Guaranteed

All our opals are guaranteed genuine opal stones, complete with a Certificate of Authenticity upon sale. This signed document contains a basic description of your item. For more expensive items, you may request a detailed analysis of your stone, such as origin, classification, weight, colors, and dimensions, and is an excellent record for valuation and insurance purposes. For a full description of the various types of opals, see our Opal Encyclopedia.

>All Opalmine Policies

Contact Us

Contact us on Skype if you would like. If you don't have Skype, just buy yourself a cheap mike and load down the free version at: www.skype.com
Or send me an S.M.S. to
Cell Phone:
61414950914
Fax:
(617)5518 7647

E-Mail:
peter@opalmine.com
Web Site:
www.opalmine.com

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It's all about BOULDER OPAL

This month's e-newsletter is dedicated to boulder opal. This form of opal is so unique that many people don't associate it with opal. In fact, opals come in many varieties and colors.

Similar to black opal except that the foreground colour is very thin and sits on a brown ironstone base, these stones at times can come with interesting "hills" and "valleys" on the surface (meaning that the surface is often, but not always, undulating). These stones are preferred by people who are more "progressive" in their jewelery tastes. Often boulder opal has ironstone inclusions in the foreground and all sorts of odd shapes which makes them a designers delight.

Only $120 48 x 17 mm boulder opal pendant with solid silver from Yowah opalmine	Sale $650 17 x 11 mm boulder totalling 9.80 carats. 5 freeform pink, green, and orange stones. Ask Peter for free advice about making a pendant, ring, bracelet set.	Only $600 8 x 6 mm ring size 7 1/2 18K gold
Only $250 20 x 10 mm boulder picture opals Sterling silver	Only $1200 10 x 7mm freeform 11.22 carats 9 remarkable stones	Only $180 17 x 7 boulder pendant gold plated silver metal

Unbeknownst  to most folks, some boulder opals are also black opals and can be just as valuable as the Lightning Ridge variety, depending of course on uniqueness and depth of color. Found in the 1870's on outback Queensland properties often when farmers were digging dams, these beautiful stones sometimes cost more to mine than black opals because of the expensive tools and machinery needed to unearth them.  Some of the ironstone boulders they are found in are meters [yards] in size and have to be broken apart with sledge hammers.  Often the beautiful color is ruined by this process but using large diamond blades on these rocks would be uneconomical. Boulder opals are like bits of heaven peering out through the dark opal rock, well worth all of the time and effort it takes to find them.


Boulder Opal Source

The majority of the world's boulder opal is found in the western part of Australia's territory of Queensland. The stones have been uncovered sporadically around the towns of Kynuna, to the north, and Yowah, to the south.

Boulder Opal Matrix

The term "matrix" actually comes from the word "mother" or "womb", meaning that the ironstone is the "mother" that holds the "baby" which are tiny flecks of precious opal. A characteristic of boulder matrix opals is that the color is usually peppered throughout the stone. The word ‘matrix’ is also applied to a stone found in Andamooka which is treated natural opal. But boulder opal matrix is a completely natural stone.

History of Jewelry

From the Garden of Eden to Lightning Ridge

If it were not for the ladies, all the jewelers on earth would be out of business. In fact the idea of taking a chunk of yellow metal and fashioning it into something that you could hang around your neck, put through your ears, attach to your garment, or put on your wrist or finger, would probably never have dawned on the male of the species. He would have probably used the stuff to make horse shoes or belt buckles, if indeed the wearing of pants ever would have become necessary.

We are talking of course, about gold, that majestic rare metal which can easily be fashioned into any shape, limited only by the creativity and imagination of the artist. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. It can be beaten to a thickness of four millionths of an inch [0.1 micrometer]. An ounce [28g] of gold can be hammered out to cover an area of about 190 square feet [about 17 sq m]. One ounce of gold can be drawn to a length of 43 miles [70 km].

Because pure gold is so soft, it is usually alloyed with other metals to increase its hardness for use in making jewelry and other gold items. The content of gold alloys is expressed in 24ths, called karats thus, a 12-karat gold alloy is 50 percent gold, 18-karat gold is 75 percent gold, and 24-karat gold is pure. The leading gold producing nations are South Africa and the United States

The first mention of gemstones in history as far as I can tell is in the Bible. (Genesis 2:12) And would you believe that gold, onyx, and bdellium gum (A fragrant resinous gum resembling myrrh, which when dried, becomes hard and has a pearl-like appearance) are mentioned even before Eve came on the scene.

While the ancients rounded and polished precious stones, generally they do not seem to have angled, or faceted, them, as do craftsmen of modern times. The emery stone (corundum) or emery powder was employed by the Hebrews and Egyptians to polish precious stones. Often these were sculptured and engraved. The Hebrews apparently knew how to engrave precious stones long before their bondage in Egypt.

Israel's high priest's ephod had two onyx stones on the shoulder pieces. His breastplate contained a row of ruby, topaz and emerald The second row was turquoise, sapphire and jasper. And the third row was Leshem stone ,whatever that is, if someone knows please post it in the chat forum atwww.opalmine.com. [some have suggested that it could have been ancient opal] Agate and amethyst. And the fourth row was chrysolite and onyx and jade. Gold was used to set them.

It's interesting to think about why we put certain values on things. One would think that things like food and clothing would be the measuring stick to establish our material values in life, but it would seem that jewelry and gemstones hold a fascination that no other earthly item portrays. We all have childhood images of Long John Silver in Treasure Island complete with his shoulder mounted parrot screaming Pieces of eight! Pieces of Eight! as the lid of the Treasure chest was forced open to reveal its sparkling contents.

So how do we define jewelry? The publication Insight into the scriptures gives the following interesting definition: A jewel may be a precious stone, a gem (a cut and polished precious or semiprecious stone), or a decorative ornament made of precious metal (principally gold or silver) set with such stones. Jewels have been worn by both men and women from early Biblical days for purposes of adornment.

A favorite haunt of archaeologists is the cemetery. The ancients had an obsession with death and were not satisfied to just allow some regal person to rot in peace without some comforts. Hence, the amount of amazing jewelry that was discovered in the tombs of Abrahams home town, Ur of the Chaldea's (reportedly the most ancient city ever discovered) Our picture shows some beads and earrings, and it astounding that the designs bare a striking resemblance to jewelry created in modern workshops.

Now here we are in the twenty first century. If you could see Lightning Ridge from the air you would think that its like the craters on the moon as a result of the thousands of holes that have been dug looking for that elusive gem. Opal. Nothing has changed. People today still adore gemstones. And some, men and women alike, sacrifice their lives in an attempt to find them.

A favorite haunt of archaeologists is the cemetery. The ancients had an obsession with death and were not satisfied to just allow some regal person to rot in peace without some comforts. Hence, the amount of amazing jewelry that was discovered in the tombs of Abrahams home town, Ur of the Chaldea's (reportedly one of the most ancient cities ever discovered in Iraq). Our picture shows some beads and earrings, and it astounding that the designs bear a striking resemblance to jewelry created in modern workshops. Click here for a look at the world’s most ancient jewelry: http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/specex/ur/ur.htm

YOUR TURN

"I want to thank you very much for the opal pendant you sent. Even though I had an idea of what it looked like when ordering it, it still made me take a deep breath when seeing it for the first time in person. The complementary earrings you gave were the icing to the perfect cake.
I can not wait to see the reaction of my girlfriend. I want to give it to her now, but I have to wait 19 more agonizing days until Christmas.
On top of it all there was also a cute koala pendant with my order. I can not believe the generosity that came with my order.
I will definitely use your business again, and I will be recommending you to others.
Once again: thank you. You have made me very happy!

Ps. I now have a strong desire to visit down under."