Opal - Profound Glass - Austin TX

[1dave]

Opal has always been one of my favorite stones, but . . .
It only has a hardness of about 3.5 EDIT-Error! ( Mohs 5.5-6.5 (Mindat, Webmineral, Wikipedia, Schumann, etc.) Thanks @rockncritter .

Contains varying amounts of water that can dry out and cause crazing, OR convert to steam and fracture the stone.
Back somewhere in the 60's or 70's I purchased some rough Gilson created opal from France. Still not one problem with the stones I cut.



Some poo-poo "man made" material. Not me. This material is harder ( 7? ) than natural because it grew from ethyl silicate instead of hydrous silicate, and does not have the  crazing and fracturing problems.

I read that it costs around $30/gram to grow them.

I recently found that this material is available from Austin TX.

About Us
Profound Glass was started in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO in the summer of 1996 with the help of Bill D. and Joe C.. During the first 2 years of Profound Glass, Nate spent much of his time learning the art of lampworking from intense experimentation, studying vintage scientific glass blowing books and taking classes with lampworking greats, Kevin O'Grady and Rodger Paramore. In 1997 www.profoundglass.com was created with the gracious help of Hugh and in 1998 "Profound Glass Gallery" opened in downtown Colorado Springs with the generous help of Chris Hock.

Now in Austin Texas, Profound Glass features beautiful glass jewelry created by independent lampworkers from around the country and the world! We also specialize in Gilson created opal and are the largest distributors of the product in North America. We are staffed by friendly, caring people who want nothing more then to help you, our customers, in any way they can. Profound Glass is proud that every employee is paid a living wage and provided with full health coverage.

Thanks for checking us out!!
Nate - Founder & Owner

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Business hours :
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Profound Glass Works, LLC
PO Box 161988
Austin,TX
78716-1988

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The tumbled bits and pieces are sold by the gram - 5- 10 stones per gram.

I purchased a gram of the "large" $29/gram to see how much that was.\



  I'm pleased with the 5 I got. As you can see they are about the size of opals you find in typical jewelry store rings and only cost me around $ 6 / stone.

Next time I'll try the Black $32/gram tumbled.

[1dave]

Thanks @shotgunner for this info!

Manufacturing process for synthetic opal.

Mr Pierre Gilson started to study synthetic opals based on the information published by Dr Darragh and others thesis. In 1972, he succeeded in synthesizing opals, and two years after in 1974 Pierre Gilson started to sell this man-made opal to the public as Gilson Synthetic Opal. In the first place, white opals came in the market. Black opals followed next and subsequently he succeeded in producing transparent crystal opals (water opal). These synthetizing method involve a kind of flocculation method.

First, you add a little ethyl silicate into boiled weak alkaline solution and colloidal silica will grow. After separating and eliminating the condensed coarse spheres, by a sedimentation method, you drip ethyl silicate through a cooling installation and you grow amorphous silica spheres using colloidal silica as seed. You need a few months to get growth of uniform spheres and also you have to check the growing spheres all the time by a spectrometer. For this purpose, checking and modifying the temperature, density, and pH of the solution is very important. You stop the dripping of the ethyl silicate when sphere diameter becomes around 550nm. Then you continue to boil them a few more days and the effects are concluded.

After you collect and remove alchohol by distillation, you transfer the suspending solution, which contains the grown-up spheres into the clear container, such as a beaker. Then you let them settle down quietly over a long period of time. It takes a few months for the spheres to settle into a regular pattern. Centrifugal force cannot be used to accelerate settling of spheres. A few months later you will see the play of color displayed by the settled spheres in the beaker.

After you aspirate and remove most of the upper solution, you must add some more fluid containing colloid silica and stir the spheres up then for a second time to allow settlement start. First, settled spheres in the beaker become the cores and the later settlings grow upward as columns. At this time, the superior column eliminates the inferior column. In mineralogy, we explain these as geometric selection (Grigorlev 1965) and honeycomb color patterns get larger and larger.

The settled spheres exist in gel conditions and moisture is only slowly removed by natural evaporation so that dryness takes a long time. The gel turns into solid condition by the heat treatment until the gel becomes silica-stacked spheres of amorphous silica. Under this process, you can make black opal and transparent crystal opals by adding several additives. It takes about one year for the whole process.


Character of Gilson synthetic opals.

The characteristics of natural opals are varied and depending upon where they come from. The composition of both natural and synthetic opals are generally the same, of course, it is silica. The specific gravity of synthetic opal is little higher than natural opal. The reason seems to be due the difference of water content. Hardness of synthetic opal is slightly higher than natural ones. The refractive index of both opals are almost the same. Gilson synthetic opals play of color is very clear and beautiful.

Some times very good quality synthetic opals are equal in beauty to that of natural ones. Gilson synthetic opals spheres grow vertical in the bottom of the container with the columnar structure forming by natural settlement. While growing, the angle of columns will change from one to other column because of the principal of "geometrical selection".

These differences in the angulation of columns in Gilson synthetic opal may explain why you can observe the "lizard skin", when you observe them in their vertical angle of growth. If you cut Gilson synthetic opal according to the vertical angle of color pattern growth direction and polish them, you can observe the typical honeycomb structure, which is called "lizard skin" under the optical microscope. This is the distinctive feature of synthetic opals from the naturally occurring opals.

[1dave]

Trying to get it all together. My "facts" were off the top of my pointy head.

From another source, I understand most natural opal from Australia formed at around 75 Degrees F.
Depends on what you call "boiling."

I want to buy some too, but the really good stuff ain't cheap!

6 mm Coins:

These coin opals are flat & polished on both sides and rounded & polished along the edges. Each stone flashes a rainbow of intense fire. You are going to love these opals!
Price: $7.75 ea

!

Brand: Gilson created opal #2
This piece of Gilson opal rough has a black base and lots of red and blue fire. It measures 18.5mm wide x 42mm long x 6mm thick. The opal weighs 8.2 grams.
Price: $492.00 . . . (= $ 60 / gram)

Brand: Gilson created opal #9
This piece of Gilson opal rough has a black base and lots of green, gold and red fire. It measures 15mm wide x 42mm long x 6mm thick. The opal weighs 5.3 grams.

Price $318.00 (= $ 60 / gram)

[1dave]

Financial Realities

1980 Gilson Co sold manufacturing equipment and technology of synthetic opals to a Japanese maker and they continued productions by Tajil Co in Switzerland , which is the Swiss office of Japanese Arce Medium Co. But sales were not so good as they expected. Arce Co tried to manufacture them in Japan also, but they only manufactured on a trial basis and then Tajil and Arce both stopped manufacturing. At present only Kyocera (Kyoto Ceramic) Co is manufacturing synthetic opals, making jewelry and selling with their own brand name in Japan.

Production is expensive.

My guess is that Profound Glass is only producing small patterned pieces and tumble polishing them.

[1dave]

Dec 8, 2015 15:36:11 GMT -7 @vegasjames said:

ABR Imagery also sells opal:

www.abrimagery.com/store/index.php/opals-more-c-471?osCsid=436e90fb2baa54387b646017b3cdd951

They call it

Rough White Gilson Fusing Opal
White Rough Gilson Opal sold by the gram....

Fusing Opal ? This is beyond my understanding, but I've seen this stuff embedded in glass rings!

This glass opal ring is a size 7.75 and the opal inside the ring is one of our AAA white opals. The glass used is borosilicate glass (Pyrex)which is clear and very durable (but not unbreakable). The ring comes in a small ring box and is ready to wear or be given as a gift. AAA rings
Price: $45.00 ea

[1dave]

Our Black 6mm opal beads have a black base color and flash every color of the rainbow. These opals are fully drilled and ready to be strung and worn.

Why use our created opal beads? Unlike other synthetic opal beads, these opals will not discolor over time and are amazingly durable. You can wear them, wash them, and keep on moving--they will not lose their color or dull. How do we know? We embed them in molten glass! Talk about a durability test. Invest a little upfront and enjoy these beautiful opals for life.
Price: $30.00 ea

[1dave]

Dec 11, 2015 11:27:43 GMT -7 @micellular said:

Wow, they even have a crushed opal nail polish. That's pretty neat.

[1dave]

Jack stamper of Marion VA sent me a cab made with their small opal chips.

[1dave]

Mar 30, 2016 13:03:43 GMT -7 tela said:

Gilson opal is beyond beautiful! I have some leftover from when I was blowing glass. I have a chunk of gorgeous black. Maybe I should cab it. Most of it, I cut into small enough pieces to encase in glass. I used a tile nipper. When I bought it, it was still affordable and pretty much was only bought by borosilicate glass workers. It's incredible when cased in clear glass.