Archive for Gems

What are proper values?

Posted in Gemstones with tags , , , , , , on March 2, 2009 by opalmine

Reference point valuations

Everything on our planet has a value. The trick is to recognize it. For something to have value, it must do something for us. That means that things that we cannot even see have value. Actually they are more valuable than things we can see. It’s just that we don’t think about them or recognize them. Take the air we breathe. The food we eat. Some aspects of these things such as vitamins and minerals are not obvious to the naked eye.

Animals don’t have to think of values. They just put there heads down, eat and drink and get immediate benefits from these valuable things without having to think about it. Instinct establishes there set of values.

But we humans often have to think about it. We have created this thing called money which is supposed to represent or epitomize value, and to a reasonable degree, this is true. If we had the old trading system, it would be very difficult to cart around a table and chairs to trade for something. So because everyone accepts money as a common denominator, we are willing to work hard in the heat all day. Or work in a boring office, for money. Why? Because we know we can sacrifice this paper stuff to get other things which we consider to be more valuable. Motor cars, houses, jewelry, varieties of food and clothing.

Some of us are brainwashed into thinking that the money itself is where the value is, not in the things it can buy. In this case, it’s the security of just having it that represents value to them. Like the man who rummages through rubbish bins for food so that he can leave his million dollars in the bank. Or the millionaire who refuses to change a dripping tap in the kitchen because of the plumbing expense.

Yet, what happens if money looses its value? Talk to people who lived in Germany after the last Great War. Ask them how much the DM was worth for a period of time after the war. You needed a small suitcase of them to get a bus ticket.

Such unbridled assignment of value to paper decorated with the heads of famous or infamous people is clearly nonsensical, and yet, to a degree most of us are guilty of it. How many people sacrifice kindness, human relationships, health and nervous energy, making sure they have the most beautiful house or car in the street? And the amazing part about it is that a lot of folks with lovely houses, rarely get around to living in them, because the time it takes doing 3 jobs, or running a business for 16 hours out of each day for seven days a week, means that the only time they enjoy them is when they are sleeping.

Should not our values be more closely aligned to happiness and contentment for ourselves and anyone else around us? And once we get these values sorted out, we can spoil ourselves with a bit of a splurge now and then, because we’ll probably discover that there’s money to be saved if we get our priorities right.

Art why do people love it and others hate it

A love hate relationship

Many elements make up a work of art . It’s a combination of elements that make it up. Color, size, contrast, texture. Contrast in size, color, tonal qualities. You can isolate a section of a painting. It might be elements must be organized in such a way that its pleasing to the eye. Is it all reds. Need large areas of reds. Lighter reds. Light and dark. Recognizing how all these elements can be put together . might not strike as a work of art in the beginning. But if it sits on your wall. It becomes a screen between you and the artist. For arguments sake if someone paints like a photo. There is no expression of the artist in the painting no brush strokes you might as well just have a photograph. If you like photos. Is it something interesting, or is it the artist photographer. Waits for the sun in the right position. Too create a mood. He starts composing. He’s doing the same thing as the artist. Looking for textures, design, light. Different times of the day. Better if you like photos to empty someone to do it. People think good art is how like the subject matter you make your artwork. No. this is bad art. Drafting skills do come into it. But this is only one element. Look at a painting look at its composition well thought out love color schemes. Appeals to me .. some folks buy art because an art dealer says it will be worth money time .. in this case it becomes another form of cash. Rembrandt for example. One painting shows he is really depressed. Closer you get to it you can see that only three brushstrokes for the nose. For hundreds of years never see so many self portraits. Different moods . Before photography artists were more credible Smart Chart Opal Valuation systembecause they were the only way of recording history…further later

To effectively value opals check out the Smart Chart Valuation system.This system is the best attempt to interpret the seemingly endless varieties of shapes, patterns, prices, and qualities of stones from the three major fields in Australia. The results of many years of hands on opal cutting, viewing, analyzing, promoting and marketing that most elusive of gemstones. The Australian Opal.

Welcome to Opal Experts.Com

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on December 1, 2008 by opalmine

A blog to cater for the international interests of people not only  fascinated by the stone itself, but by the amazing design potential and the endless array of patterns, shapes, and yes, even picture likenesses of living things, plants, mountains, oceans, animals, insects, celestial objects, to name a few.

Peter Brusaschi of the grandfather internet site www.opalmine.com, [1996], the sponsor and creator of this blog, has a collection of these amazing  opal picture stones which , as time allows, he will publish at this site, for the world to see.

You, our valued visitors and supporters, will be invited to ‘put in your two bobs worth’ as Australians put it, and make some of your own comments about anything related to not just opals, but jewelry design, gemstone fossicking, gemstone cutting, collecting, visits to outback gem fields, collecting, and anything else you can think of that will bring a little sparkle to your life and the lives of all other visitors.

Peter has already started making his cd ‘opals for the ordinary bloke’, which has been selling on the net for nearly 14 years now, available in sections free at this site.

Please enjoy.  www.opal-experts.com Peter Brusaschi

This is the first in a series of opal cutting articles

Posted in Learn How To Cut And Polish Opals, Market Your Opals Online with tags , , , , on October 6, 2008 by opalmine

“In the ‘old’ days, Peter used, everything it was such a big deal if you wanted to market your stones outside of the isolated ‘Land down under.’ Not only were we further away than any other country on the planet, but where the opals came from was even more isolated”, he said. To get to these ‘outback’ regions, it could take days of travel along dusty roads in the search for white, black, and boulder opal.

In those days many opal dealers would make a yearly pilgrimage, to arguably the greatest gem show on earth, Tucson Arizona, where they measure gemstones by the square acre, rather than the carat. It was a huge challenge carting heavy containers of rough opal in drums to the other side of the world.

Opal dealers, mineral collectors, jewelers, and all kinds of Rock hounds, still make these pilgrimages. Admittedly, it is something special to travel to America and meet up with an international family of gem collectors, displaying things that you would never have believed could be found in the ground.

To quote Peter, “Lazy people like me, prefer to take good pictures of whatever opals are for sale, and post them on the net. We couldn’t believe our luck when they invented the digital camera. We had lots of trouble with the old cameras, getting the light just right to capture the changing colors of this unique gemstone”.

But that was the old world, before the internet. Now, Peter’s daughter Cindy has become the photographic expert. She has taken literally thousands of amazing shots of the endless variety of colors, patterns, shapes, and sizes of this remarkable stone. Much of her work is on display at www.opalmine.com along with lots of pics of the opal mines, and outback Australia.

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