WHO IS US, YES US?

info — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:02:17 +0000

You are dealing with a split personality here on this website. One half is Barbara McCondra, writer, lecturer, a kind of opal evangelist, and cyber vendor. The other half is Eskimo Nell, opal miner and adventure hound. You can’t always tell which one is doing the talking but both are opal afflicted, I mean addicted. Yes, there are those who like opal and buy opal and wear opal, bless them. But then there are those, like both of my split selves, who have let opal grab hold of them and changed their lives forever. The fever burns in their eyes. They live breathe and speak of nothing but opal and the opal life. The amazing opal life, and that opal fever that forever burns within the day to day living of it, is what I, I mean WE (Eskimo Nell and Barbara McCondra) want to share with you on this website. Sure, I also need to earn a quid to help finance my continued adventures and fevered quest for opal. So opal stones, rough, specimens, jewelry, and books will be offered here for sale. I have done much writing over the years to boost the opal industry and the tourism to Australia and was pleased to do so. There was a time many years ago when only I and one other, an Australian, sold opal on the newly blossoming Internet. The cyber industry is alive and well in the opal fields of outback Australia today with thousands of people selling opal on the Net. This site wants to stand out once again from the beautiful but highly commercialized “others”. Therefore, my mission statement (note that is Barbara talking as Nell never would say “mission statement”) to my cyber readers/customers is that this site hopes to better spread the opal word, opal knowledge, opal life adventures, and opal appreciation. And by doing that kindle the fires of opal passion as we opal addicts always have a need to see the opal circle grow. It is secondary that an opal supply is also made available to you.

check out opal and my books for sale at www.outbackgems.com

Opal Books for Sale

info — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:01:59 +0000

Nope not just my cookbook or Fire in a Plain brown Wrapper but my personal collection of opal books. Write me at mccondra@parchedearthopals.com and tell me which one you are looking for. I will be moving again and i just do not want to cart them about or store them anymore. Time to find them new homes. And the best part is I’m not trying to make alot of money off them…just lighten up my moving load

Review of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Lightning Ridge Opal Field Cookbook

info — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:38:55 +0000

Hi all. Got the book. Read it straightaway. Then went back through and skimmed my favourite stories again, just to set them in my mind. And this left me with a feeling of “yep - that must be what it’s REALLY like…” to be an opal miner. Most other things I’ve read were more about searching for, then finding (or not) a good pocket.

This is a collection of anecdotes about the realities of day-to-day living on the fields. Things other authors I’ve read may have included here and there, but hadn’t focused on in quite the same way. And other things no one else I’ve read has ever thought to mention. And then seeing some recipes from folks whose names you can find on maps of the fields adds even more to the sense that this book is indeed the real thing.

Kudos “Nell”…!

azvinnie: Boulder Opal Council; To purchase book go to www.outbackgems.com and click on ebay store.

To Buy Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Cookbook Go…

info — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:19:48 +0000

www.outbackgems.com This is my son Ron Vil’s site (formerly known as one of the Yankee brothers in Lightning Ridge)His Ebay store link will take you to where you can can purchase my cookbook.

I am Blogging at http://parchedearthopals.blogspot.com/

info — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:02:35 +0000

check out my new old town life

http://parchedearthopals.blogspot.com/

and this site www.bigbugstation.com

No More Prepublish Sale, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is Published!

info — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:57:01 +0000

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes a Lightning Ridge Opal Field Cookbook Pre Publication Sale

info — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:02:59 +0000

Author and illustrator, Barbara McCondra, worked in the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay Alaska before heading Down Under to buy a black opal. Twenty five years later she still hunkers down around campfires with miners fevered of eye and wild of heart who share their secrets, dream their dreams, and laugh at frustration. The food she cooked in outback makeshift kitchens gave her energy to labor seventy feet below ground with jack hammer and shovel. The companionship shared in those dirt floor kitchens gave her heart to continue living the opal life. The people of the outback, the energy of the bush, the thrill of the hunt for opal and her ability to bring it alive to the reader is found within the pages of this cookbook. She has already published the book Fire in a Plain Brown Wrapper and numerous articles for Rock and Gem Magazine in the USA and Metal Stone and Glass Magazine in Australia.The cookbook is in the mail to the printers. It will retail for 14.95 USD but is being offered for sale at a prepublication price of 10.00USD plus 2.00USD postage. within USA. The printers promise a four week turnaround. Send purchase price plus postage to Paypal account mccondra@parchedearthopals.com 8.5 x 11 inches and 70 pages in black and white with characatures and cartoons of the locals and the life and times of mining in Lightning Ridge.

Gypsy Yowah and Koroit Opal Truth

info — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:45:00 +0000

Yowah Sand Tit Opal Formation Photo

info — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:32:20 +0000

First two frames show the sand tit as hangs from ironstone seam band. Last frame is of a sandtit that has been contour plished and cut into an opal stone. Arrows show the opalized split of the tit away from the ironstone biscuit band seam.

Sand Tits—A Form of Yowah Ironstone Opal

info — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:30:12 +0000

Sand tits form attached to an ironstone biscuit band. The biscuit band is a seam of ironstone laying in the sandstone and clay levels. The ironstone sometimes has opal lines and pools within it.
The brown ferruginous sandstone formations look like little miniature stalactites hanging from an ironstone biscuit band in clay. The sand tits’ ironstone has a more sandy consistency than do the hard ironstone nuts. And the tits have a yellow ochre, thin limonite colored exterior skin. There can be more horizontal lines of opal in a tit besides at the join to the ironstone band. One theory is that this formation is the result of annelids that are little wormlike, segmented creatures that bored into the clay bed of ancient sandy sea floors. Most must be contour cut with a dremil tool in order to cut into stones.