Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

We entered our opal in the Aussie NSW state gem show, these are the same ones we entered in the Ridge opal awards, different judges, we get a score sheet, this should be done in the Ridge awards, I think the main reason I did not do well in the Ridge event is my carving is not a free form carving, it was not dictated by the shape of the rough gem.

And the owl

Way to go Michael! Congratulations are definitely in order.

Nice job. Maybe the LR judges are spoiled on nothing but precious opal showing if it is not a natural cabochon. Glad you got some ribbons.

Now there you go, a bit of thought, effort and respect. Encouragement to try again next year.

Nice carving BTW, thats not easy to do thats for sure,

Well deserved. Congratulations. Are you also entering in the show held in Tasmania?

Thanks for the great support, when its judged on a set off standards with a score sheet it gives the entrant feed back on there quality, and a non bias judging system, no names on the entry's being judged, If I enter the Lightning Ridge awards again I will do what most do just free form the natural shape of the stone and simply carve some small design or pattern into the stone, have a look at the link, I was asked to do a small article on our entrys, page 15.
http://gemlapidarycouncilnsw.org.au/gem ... mber-2015/

And we will be entering the National awards in Tassie if I ever finish some carvings.