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OPAL BOOKS
Some of Len Cram's best selling titles, most of them are out of print and almost all are signed by the author.
OPAL INFO
Look here for general information on different types of opal, formation, and the like.
MINING INFO
These are articles about the opal fields, the opal life, mining, cutting, and whatever else we get a chance to write.
ESKIMO NELL
Who is that???
Suppliers of Quality Opal Rough & Spectacular Finished Stones, specializing in Yowah Nut Opal, Opalized Wood, and Lightning Ridge Black Opal.
by Barbara McCondra 
POTCH IN YOWAH & KOROIT OPAL By Barbara McCondra Potch is the Aussie word for common opal. Opal that due to the irregularly shaped silica spheres it is composed of, has no play of color, no fire, no rolling moving flames of light, or winking speckles and patches of electric color. Common opal as opposed to precious or noble opal---- does not mean it has no esthetic value. Picture stones in Koroit, Yowah and boulder opal often have potch that defines the picture if not be the focal subject of the opal painting. Yowah & Koroit potch come in many colors: black, red, orange, peach, yellow, caramel, blue, brown, cream, coffee, green and white. It is the wondrous patterns and combinations of these colors of potch along with the opal in the ironstone matrix that makes Yowah & Koroit so fascinating to cut and polish and so challenging. The combinations are just what Yowah & Koroit, the "inspiration" stones are all about. THE PRIMA DONNA OF LIGHTNING RIDGE (An Article on Black Opal) By Barbara McCondra As primitive man so cherished a hot, red fire in the blackness of night, so do gem lovers of the world value above all other opals, the red on black opal. Every gemstone category has its Prima Donna and the red multicolor black opal can command $20,000 plus per carat. Many factors contribute to the identification of such a superb gem black opal. The location of its mine of origin is the first consideration, Australia being the most desirable, as the gem quality opal there is of sedimentary formation rather than volcanic. It is Australian black that I refer to now: The blackness of the base color, the brilliance of the fire, the predominance of red, the richness of the colors, the quality of the other colors with the red (heliotrope, yellow, cornflower blue, electric green, gold, bronze) the rareness and desirability of the pattern of the fire, the directionality of the fire (is the color play "ON" at all angles of viewing), the fluidity and mobility of color and pattern, the shape and size of the stone, and the overall composite appeal of all these factors. All of these are part and parcel of the gem look, that special magic, hence gem value, of the opal. Opal aficionados have their individual preferences, but market consensus gives top dollar value to red on black. The Red Robin, Red Admiral, Black Prince, Pride of Australia, Firestorm, The Flamingo, The Cardinal, The Southern Princess, and The Flame Queen are among the list of precious, world renown, red on black gem opals. A list could be made too of many secretly bought and sold exquisite red stones if it all were not so exactly that, secret! The lists go on and on. Both the famous named and the secret red on black beauties command royal prices. The colors within an opal have been observed by electron microscopes to be the result of the breaking up of light into the spectral colors. Red is the color caused by diffraction of light at the interface of the voids which are created by the three-dimensional grates of 3,000 to 4,000 angstrom wide silica spheres. The diameter of the spheres control the size of the voids. For simplicity, envision stacks of egg cartons with the eggcups representing the silica spheres and the spaces between cups, the voids. To explain the blackness of the opal from which the red fire flashes is not as easy. I can tell you that all potch (opal with no fire/common opal) is made up of irregularly shaped and irregularly stacked silica spheres. However, potch can be many colors ranging from clear, white, yellow, green, orange, red, grey, leady grey, charcoal, black, to glassy black. There is controversy over what it is about black potch that makes it so black. These assorted theories range from formation in black swamp water, carbon molecules, manganese presence, to properties inherent in the structure that causes the absorption of white light resulting in non-light or black. I leave this argument to the scientists. To the romantics, the poets, and the opalholics, I liken the magic of the red on black to the red heart of Australia, its fiery desert sunsets, its redback spiders (themselves tiny replicas of a black cabochon with a bloodred spot) that appear to be the guardians of every opal mining shaft, and the dancing flashes of red in a black Antarctic sky known as the Aurora Australis. To the investment minded collector I equate the red on black opal to the pink diamond, the Burmese pigeon blood ruby, the Colombian blue green emerald, and the Tahitian Peacock or Aubergine black pearl. To the historian, I tell the tale of hope for another season of mining being paid for with the proceeds of a red on black beauty, found by a red eyed gouger in the face of his drive fifty feet underground in Lightning Ridge, Australia. I tell you of the old-timers in the early 1900s that used to throw away the beautiful blue/green stones because then only the red on blacks were marketable. Many a modern day miner has made money on processing the throw away stow dirt from that time frame. Be it the past or the present, each miner dreams of red on blacks as he stares into the comfort and company of his evening fire. He is mesmerized by the red glowing coals into reminisces of long gone red beauties he has mined or had the privilege of viewing. Mostly he conjures up visions of the prized red on blacks his days traces promised him will be forthcoming, perhaps in the next few tons of dirt he shifts. Go back |