Giveaway Entries!!! Why Opal?

Very nice entries from everyone but this giveaway is done. Congrats to Shiramus for getting the win with here entry. Will have another up soon...

for me it would be the different colours and patterns, and I love that no 2 opals are the same.. I'm a gold prospector so to see all those colours it's really different then just seeing the same colour all the time

For me I loved gemstones when I went Questacon I bought this gold block that I had to dig apart and got a ton of different quartz. then I would use the crystals for science with a few mirrors and magnifying glass using sunlight magnification, refraction and reflection melting the road. Then I kinda forgot about them untill I stumbled across your channel now a fully licence truck mechanic I can afford collecting shiny rocks.

I collected rocks from a young age, starting with those I stumbled over while hiking. Bought some when possible when I was a bit older. I grew up without internet so when I became an adult and got that myself, it did'nt take long before I discovered ebay and the possibility of purchaseing stones from all over the world.

I one day stumbled over opals there, and I fell in love but at the same time thinking "Can that really be a real stone?!? 🧐". From there I did some serious research, found Opalauctions.com and a ocean of videos on YouTube+++ that thing was real 😯😎👌

After that, I was hooked for life 🥰

Why black opal? Well I'd like to say "I learned it from watching you and Justin" because I googled cutting opal and both yours and justins videos came up and well I was hooked after that for certain but there was a reason I googled cutting opal to begin with and it goes back to my childhood sitting in my gravel driveway looking through the loose gravel for quartz and agates and the odd fossil for hours on end...but I've always lived in Louisiana and gemstones are nearly non-existent save for a mine about four hours away that closed two years before I was born 😂 so that hardly stopped me from looking as I still do it today and I'm 47 years old long story a little shorter I guess I've always loved rocks but seeing you guys do it and make it so accessible for the layman that you allowed me to do something I'd always dreamed but never dared.... create my own gems!!! So thanks 🙏

Opal is the most amazing gemstone! The colors are so mesmerizing. I used to have an antique white opal ring that was lost some years ago. I haven’t found a replacement I can afford yet. I truly enjoy watching and learning everything on your YouTube channel. Thank you!!

Virginia Johnson

Have to say my latest obsession and financial drain being busy stocking up on the kit and Opal 😉 is down to your relaxing informative videos watching Mother Earth and a skilled hand at their finest bringing out the Beauty from within. No other Gem cuts it for me, has to be Opal all the way!

Thanks for sharing Roy,

Regards, Sue

I remember seeing a BO Direct video randomly and then having your videos come up in the suggested, since then added a few more channels like Pulitzer Opal and I'm hooked, line and sinker.

What Got Me into opals. Seeing and being fascinated by opalised fossils.

Didn't even know there was such a thing until that day.

i was originally given an opal ring by my mother when i went to vietnam and some idiot told her it meant death so she spent the rest of my time in nam trying to get me to return it so began my love of opals and in the last 2 years i have tried to cut and polish opals to give to my children and gran children still learning

My love for Australian Opal came from a very young age. My mother always loved opal and could never afford a ring or necklace. She finally ended up getting a white Coober Pedy necklace in her 40’s and she was so enamored with it. After she passed at 51 yrs old in 2010 we were going through her belongings and in her jewelry box was that necklace. My sister took it to wear and loved it. For me though every time I see opal it reminds me of my mothers warmth and love. For me a piece of her shows through in every piece I work now. Thank you Roy so much for all you do for the industry. It’s noticed and very much appreciated brother.

Hi Roy, my obsession is fairly new. I have always loved opal in all their beauty but have never owned any. My parents are travellers and spent 3 months of every year travelling around Australia. My father has been collecting small pieces of rough opal from Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy, Andamooka, all places really.

He is in his 80’s now and can no longer travel and he knew I had an interest in opal so he gifted all his pieces to me. This is when my obsession really kicked off so to YouTube I went. Yourself, Justin and a couple of others have taken so much of my time (in a good way) and here we are today. I now own a dremel and all the equipment to cut and polish my rocks and have been having the best time along the way.

Funnily enough I have just been travelling through Lightning Ridge on my search for opal.

Sorry for the long winded story and thanks for the opportunity to win.

Linda

Hey Roy.....about 10 years ago, my wife Jill and I were watching the JTV Jewelry channel and they were talking about the Welo opal fields and selling opals from that region. We both fell in love with opals and I started researching them. During my research, I stumbled upon Justin's Youtube channel and that was it for me. Now it's not the Ethiopian opals for me, it's the opals of Australia. I have been carving opals with my dremel for the past six years or so and have learned a lot from Justin, you, and Phil from the Opal Mills channel. Thanks for all you do...."Good on ya mate!"

Hey mate. I randomly accompanied a friend who was heading to Coober Pedy for work on 2 separate occasions- mainly to make the drive a bit safer & help with loading/ unloading gear etc. We got a tip from the accommodation owners on some noodling sites and lent us a bit of gear to go out & have a fossick. While we didn’t find much of any value, I did suddenly develop a new super power… “opal eyes”. Once I saw the first little flash of colour, suddenly the dirt was pinging everywhere! Dribbling a bit of water on it I was amazed that something so beautiful can exist down in all that uninteresting, ancient rock- and created in the way that it is.

Like Roy I started watching Justin from Black Opal Direct and just fell in love with these magical stones, I've been hooked ever since.

Got hooked watching outback hunters.. the fact that it's an ancient mineral trapped between rocks producing such a beautiful thing is what makes it magic

Hi Roy, so it took me ages to get into opal but I first started around 2020 with the pandemic, Justin was a big inspiration as was your work when I was starting out and you both still are great inspirations for me but what got me into cutting opals was trying to find tintenbar opal, we only found quartz but my sister's partner has a grandmother that heard that we were working on opal and we got a chance to practise on some potch and alot of sand. Most of the chunk was sand and it had only a little bit of potch but when we hit the potch, we found a gem that really exited us and also scared us alot so as inspiration to finish that stone, we learnt to cut opals. Me and my mum started with black Opal and I dabbled with welo opal for a little bit but went back to black Opal then we eventually heard of the black lighters and Julian and started to buy off them, eventually I got the courage after 2 years and I did the final cut and polish of the gem and I was so proud. That locked in my love for opal and I'm happy to have opal as a fascination of mine and I'll never be upset about it.

P.S: Ive got some Coober Pedy opal that I'm really proud of the outcome and I hope you like it and feedback is great!

I loved Opal from an early age, but the addiction started because of the TV show Opal Hunters, then began researching miners and asking for education, filtering out the dodgy ones and found some honest and trusting sellers and a father and son team who are an amazing cutter, I haven't sold anything just a big collector that will pass them on to my daughter one day.

When i was a child my mother had a jar full of pretty rocks in water in her china cabinet and after her passing one of the other siblings made it disappear :( Late last year a friend gave me a small rock of opal and told me to get the dremel out and have fun. Now I am hooked on the most beautiful stone in the world. I have only been carving 2 months but getting there. This is a small shell from Coober Pedy and the Blacklighters.

I guess I have always had a fascination with rocks in general, especially when I was younger and then life got busy. I used to look at the different stones in the jewelry stores and remember seeing a black opal once that had an intense red pinfire. The illusion of depth in that stone was amazing and didn't even

seem possible. After the "RONA" hit I was laid off from work. One night I managed to catch one of Justin's videos, then that led to another, and then to Pulitzer and Riley, and a new guy named Roy who often ended up cracking or chipping his stones with that crazy Dremel tool. I wouldn't have thought it possible until I saw in one of Justin's videos that you could cut and polish opal simply with sandpaper. I was very skeptical but thought I'd give it a try. I figured I'd give myself a year to see if I could learn to actually cut jewelry quality stones. After getting the basics and a little bit of rough from Opal Auctions I chose a small, thin piece of seam that was showing some color as my first attempt. I know everyone says to start with potch but I figured if I was going to spend all those hours I wanted to give myself the chance of a finished stone with color. Also I thought that I would be going slow enough with the sandpaper that I'd be able to catch myself before I went too far. When I started I first rubbed my stone firmly 25 times on the sandpaper and took a look to see how much material I took off. I wanted to cry because I couldn't see any difference, lol. That's when reality set in but I was committed to following through mostly because I foolishly told others I was going to cut my own opal. After almost a month of working off and on and going through every obstacle imaginable, including constantly second guessing myself, I finally finished my first stone. The wonder of transforming a rock into something of such beauty is something few people will get to experience and I will never forget. I now have a very nice collection of settable stones which I'm hoping to start setting myself next year. That's a whole new series of videos I'll have to get ready for.