Gemstones need to be cut or shaped in some way before being sold to the final link in the chain - the customer on the street who wants a piece of jewelry to wear, to show off that gemstone.
Calibrated opal - opal cut to standard dimensions. These are usually ovals, but may be cut into other shapes.
A baroque is an opal cut into an irregular shape.
Cabochon is the rounded shape used in cutting most opals.
Doublets and triplets are important words to know. A doublet is a two part stone, consisting of a thin slice of precious opal glued onto a thicker stone background. Or it could be a thin slice of opal topped with a quartz cap. A triplet is, as the name implies, a three-part stone consisting of a thin slice of precious opal glued to a thicker stone background, with a piece of clear quartz glued over the top - so the opal is sandwiched in between.
If you ever see something labeled as a Gilson opal, be aware that that is a synthetic opal. Opalite is another imitation opal.
Mark your calendar for July 2010 if you’d like to visit the Yowah Opal Festival.
There’s plenty of events going on in Queensland, including the Opal Festival.
Head into the Simpson Desert in the far west from Brisbane for the Bedourie Camel Races (July 10), or southwest beyond Cunnamulla for the Yowah Opal Festival (16-18 July), where the tiny four-block town celebrates its uniqueness and the beauty of Australia’s national gemstone each year.
Plan your Outback Queensland festival calendar
The Ridge News has an interesting article on the turtles of Lightning Ridge: Fossil discovery throws new light on evolution
Here’s the first two paragraphs of the article:
Lightning Ridge palaeontologist Dr Elizabeth Smith has identified up to seven different types of fossil turtles at Lightning Ridge.
“That’s a lot of fossil turtles for one location,” said Dr Smith, from the Australian Opal Centre, who is a PhD graduand of the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
And how do opals come into it?
“Palaeontologists have been arguing for two hundred years about the nearest relatives of turtles.
Opalised turtles also offer clues about turtle ancestry, which is one of the great unsolved problems of palaeontology.”
Read the complete article for some fascinating information on turtles, and how opalization of fossils has preserved this information for generations to come.