Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Yeah, those hosts come on around 3:00 am around here, so not the top anchors. Natural pearls of any kind are rare, so she and the similar comments on the story are way off-base. I would probably keep it because it is so unusual, even though I don't exactly collect pearls.

Perhaps we will have to await some machine to automate the grading, take out the human subjectivity and substantially lower the cost of a report. It isn't far-fetched (just immerse the stone in fluid with the same RI, zap it with a clean light source and scan for color and flaws).

From dinner: http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-bites-3000-purple-pearl-clam-shell/story?id=27291086

I thought you said a lot of pictures LOL. Be careful what you ask for I know what you mean about forums going down and taking the photos. It is difficult enough for me to wade through taking them and then remembering what they were and the different ways of posting. Here are some more oldies from p...

Thanks all. Aside from digging my own, I've acquired slabbed and finished material from the 3 rock & gem shows that come to my area each summer, online and from local gemrock shops - which sadly seem to have become something of an endangered species over the last decade, even here in the rock-ri...

and yet more... Fire agate (Deer Creek, Arizona): http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy56/gemphoto12/quartzes/_paloverdefireagate1.jpg Amethyst Sage (Humboldt County, Nevada): http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy56/gemphoto12/quartzes/_agate_amethystsaage_nv02.jpg Bull Mine tube (northwestern Nevad...

New to here, though I've posted these before. For folks with a fondness for agates, resurrecting some old eye candy still on my photobucket. They were done for different purposes, so the sizes may be all over the place: Texas flame (southwest Texas) http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy56/gemphoto12...

Yes, "black onyx" is right up there with the earliest faux gems. They were sugar-acid blackening common gray chalcedony before the Romans, and its probably rivaled only by the long history of faking/treating of turquoise. Although I still have my collection of faceted gems where "clar...

I agree with your favorite. I could get lost in that, too. The Victorian banded agate pieces don't do anything for me, either (they seem to clutter up some already cluttered designs without adding much). I do disagree with the idea the author and some others have that dendritic agate and other agate...

I think I had a photo, but am not sure I still have it (3 or 4 computers later). For someone wanting to offer this type of class, one thing to consider is insurance. My recollection is that his class would not allow initial students to use the torch or centrifuge due to liability concerns. The stude...