Below is the entire list of Johno's blog posts relating to Opal Treatments.
11 March 2024 by Johno
Polishing shellsIf you have ever picked up sea shells you will have noticed that many of them have a pearl like appearance beneath their outer coating. When this coating is removed the appearance of the shell is greatly enhanced.I have been tempted on many occasions to grind this outer coating...
6 April 2023 by Johno
Searching for opal with a UV TorchI have always wanted to search for opal at night with a UV torch.Years ago I purchased a UV fluoroescent light and connected it to a battery source and tried it out at Lightning Ridge. No luck.The set up was quite cumbersome and didn't...
22 September 2020 by Johno
Experimenting with Opal Doublets and TripletsWith plenty of time on my hand during the Corona Virus lock-down I decided to experiment with the making of opal doublets and triplets.Traditionally doublets are made with a potch backing and triplets with a potch backing and a clear glass, plastic or quartz top....
22 June 2020 by Johno
Trying something different with your opal Most opal lends itself to cutting some form of cabechon. Some will have rounded tops and others, where the opal has a band of colour, will have flattened tops to ensure we get the most out of our opal. When we have thin layers of opal...
19 February 2020 by Johno
Turning your Opal Collection into JewelleryIt is wonderful to have a collection of opals that you have cut and polished. But what is the point if you only look at them occasionally and the rest of the time they sit in a drawer with no one to admire them. Opal...
2 December 2019 by Johno
Andamooka Matrix Opal Andamooka Matrix opal is a unique form of opal found only at the Andamooka Opal field in South Australia. It consists of a fine grained limestone rock with opal ingrained in this limestone matrix. The opal can exist in all sorts of patterns. Because of the...
24 May 2017 by Johno
Andamooka Matrix Opal Recently Ross from NSW contacted me and asked if I could treat some Andamooka Matrix Opal his father had found some time ago, when he mined at Andamooka. Ross apparently has quite a collection of Andamooka Matrix opal and is looking to sell it. If anyone...
5 November 2015 by Johno
Andamooka Matrix Opal Andamooka matrix opal is still a much maligned form of opal in many people's minds. The fact that it is a treated form of opal seems to ignore the fact that it is still basically one of natures treasures with it's beauty enhanced by changing the...
5 May 2015 by Johno
Andamooka Rainbow Matrix Opal is fast becoming popular with those who can't afford a "Real Opal". Originally it was called "concrete" because that was what it looked like although you could see small specks of opal in amongst the concrete like grains. It is a porous quartzite host rock...
6 October 2014 by Johno
More Andamooka Matrix Opal During the last month I was contacted by Andre who told me he had a couple of pieces of Andamooka matrix opal he had collected some time ago. He purchased one of these from Cash Converters and they were part of a deceased estate. Andre...
13 February 2013 by Johno
If you have any thin pieces of opal with nice colour but believe it is too thin to cut a cabechon then think about making a doublet. A doublet is basically a fairly thin layer of usually opal glued to a thicker layer of opal potch or some other...
17 January 2013 by Johno
The term matrix opal refers to a type of opal where there is a base stone with tiny pieces of brilliant opal interspersed within this base stone. The base can be limestone, sandstone or even ironstone. At Andamooka and apparently nowhere else in the world, two types of matrix opal...
15 November 2010 by Johno
Andamooka matrix opal is basically a limestone base rock impregnated with tiny pieces of precious opal. Because the limestone is very pale it is often difficult to see the play of opal colour in the stone and hence a method of darkening the limestone background was developed so the colour...