Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Those are absolutely gorgeous KJ! I am also blown away by them, and if BL gets his entry in, with the 3 of you entered one of you is sure to win, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if the other two took second and third. Best of luck to all of you!

Thanks!!! Course, y'all can't see the flaws in the photo like I can in hand! And these will be judged in hand so we'll see... But I've gotta tell you, these are the shells I got from Mick and they ARE worth every dime I spent. (and ya, I spent just a lil bit more than a dime... heh)

Course, value in the $$$$?? Well, only if I can actually get someone to buy them for that. I totally suck at pricing things because so far I don't have many buyers in this market. Hoping that the competition may help change that.

On the wing I had a tough decision to make. The backside (first square in the attached WIP photo) had this additional lip that I had originally carved into another wing. But, it ended up looking a bit awkward AND more importantly, there was a nice color bar underneath. So I decided to remove it. I had trouble getting a photo of the backside as it's so bright. I'm hoping the video shows it better.



And Kurt - ya... prob the same category. I did the wing as abstract as the backside is more abstract flowing lines. The rose I put in figurative. Not a lot of options otherwise if they aren't set into jewelry.

I wish shells were always that good looking! Nice job KJ.

KKHK wrote:Next one will be in two years, but there is another one that would suit your level of expertise. The Australian National! A lot more competitive as far as I understand and not yet considered for me personally.

Do you have a link to this? I couldn't find anything via Google.

And thanks RR!!

Yikes, then I'm death in the water even before the whole thing starts....

Let me ask around for the exact address. As far as I know its a yearly competition that is not specialized on opal alone. Peter, Ian and Michael where talking about previously, and one of them posted the terms for what constitutes a cab a few years ago. As far as I understood, those rules where taken from that competition.

Oh I remember that post! I'll see if there's more info. ... if I can find it. lol

So... I was advised by a previous winner that I shouldn't post publically until after the competition. The reason is that a loser can contest a winner saying that the judges were influenced. So... I guess I'll wait to upload the videos till afterwards. And I should probably go ahead and delete the photos here for now. If anyone missed seeing them and wants too please feel free to PM me.

So now we are back to that game of hide and seek? Games of politics are just so sad.

I know! Totally agree. It's so much more fun to share ahead of time. AND I would think it would help ramp up enthusiasm too.

That's a real shame because photos never do justice to gems, especially opals which always look 100% better in hand, so how could posting pics of your work influence judges? It flies in the face of logic, which makes politics the only other logical reason for disallowing pre-contest photos. How sad, but y'all will repost pics of them after the contest so they're here for posterity, so we'll just have to wait a bit longer to see the eye candy again.

Ok, it makes a "little" sense so I removed my video volunterarily for now... We'll see how the contest goes.

Oh, after the encouragement that we all have fun and participate, I sent in my registration. I still have to pack it up and express it over, but the paperwork is emailed in. I guess it's better than buying a fist full of lottery tickets