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ABOUT US

Under a variety of banners,
Gerald Pauley has been dealing
and trading in this industry
since 1965 and collecting rocks, gems,
minerals and fossils since 1953.
He commenced opal cutting
and dealing in opals in 1966
and opened his first retail shop
and opal cutting school
in April, 1967. Although he was
wholesaling cut opals he did not open
his first wholesale business until 1968.

Gerald traveled throughout Australia
prospecting and collecting gems,
minerals and fossils, whilst making
new contacts to buy and sell
Australian gems,
minerals and fossils.

In 1969 he traveled extensively
through New South Wales, Queensland,
Northern Territory and South Australia
prospecting, collecting and selling
his products. Naturally, one of
his favourite haunts was Broken Hill,
New South Wales, famous world wide
for fine specimens, some of which we are
proud to exhibit in our Gallery.

In 1969, whilst on a prospecting trip
to the north of Australia he discovered
the now famous malachite, cerussite and
pyromorphite deposit at
Browns Prospect, Rum Jungle.

At that time Australian Museums
did not have funds to purchase gems
and minerals and relied on the
generosity of collectors to make
donations. Gerald was able to trade
minerals with museums and often,
when he discovered new and
unusual items, would donate
examples to the museums to
preserve our natural mineral heritage.
He is proud of the certificates of
recognition's for the donations
he made as, today, the price of
fine examples of gems and minerals
has greatly risen and some
items have become a valuable
asset to those museums.

In 1969, Gerald invented a process
to set opal chips in calibrated black
ABS backings (requiring an injection
moulding tool) using a thermosetting
resin (epoxy) and was granted a patent
on the process. He called the product
"Rediset" and demand exceeded supply.
The main problem was with
getting good quality opal chips.
He also set a variety of colourful
gem chips in white backings.

During the years between 1969
and 1976 he was active
in purchasing and trading some
of the finest minerals from
Australian locations, especially
from Broken Hill. Many of the fine
Broken Hill minerals are now in
Australian museums. One of the
finest examples was what many
Australians regard as the best
specimen of mangano-calcite in
the world. If you are lucky enough
to own a copy of Minerals of
Broken Hill, this beautiful
specimen may be seen. Amongst
the localities we have mined
is the Adelaide Mine, Dundas,
Tasmania where we uncovered
crocoite crystals up to 9" in length
and large groups of crystals
(many of these were donated to
the National Museum of Victoria
when he sold his personal collection
to the same museum in 1974).
His collection was reported as
one of the greatest collections
ever obtained to that date.

Back in 1972 he also commenced
making injection moulding tools
for the manufacture of
"Crystal Showcase™" a 1.5"
cube acrylic box for displaying
gems, minerals, fossils and rings.
The invention of the "Ring Jig™"
insert in the box was an innovation
which allowed the ring to be
displayed in the box with the
shank of the ring also visible.
His Company was the first Australian
gemstone company to take out full colour
(2 full pages) advertising in the
Australian Gemhunter Magazine,
owned by a good friend and
associate Cyril Kovac, proprietor
of CK Minerals. When it came
to displaying and protecting minerals
or gems "Crystal Showcase™"
quickly became popular amongst
Australian dealers and collectors
alike. It remains the most popular
gem/mineral/fossil clear plastic
box on the market in Australia and
now, via the internet,
it is available to the world.

Whilst in Northern Territory,
during 1972/73 He met
a Beareau Of Mineral Resources
Geologist, who was mapping in the area
near Bachelor, Northern Territory.
Gerald had asisted him in some
rock identifacation so he invited
Gerald to have a look over some
of the old records for mineral and
gem deposits in Northern Territory.
He learned of deposits of gemstones,
agate, amethyst and prehnite
occurring in the Antrim Plateau Volcanic
near Wave Hill, Northern Territory.
It wasn't until 1974 that he was
able to visit the area to do some
prospecting. He discovered agates,
amethyst and prehnite weathering
from the basalts and prehnite
was highly concentrated in some
areas. He continued to prospect the
area for a number of years and
during the 1980's he discovered
what he believed to be the world's
largest deposit of gem grade prehnite.

It was in 1976 that he started
making a range of jewellery and
souvenirs and designed a
new injection moulding tool
for making mineral stands.
As the business grew he expanded
into new areas and in 1980
commenced designing a range of
Australiana figurines for manufacture
in pewter. The Master Patterns
were initially made in sterling silver
but, because of the demand,
he later made a very important
decision to expand the range and
make the figurines in fine
lead-free pewter. From 1980 to 1986
he commissioned Suzzanne Brett
who, under Gerald's instruction,
designed and made a total of
400 individual master patterns.

These were initially cast by a
sub-contractor but in 1985 he
established his own mould making
and pewter casting facility
developing new mould making
techniques for three-dimensional
castings. Figurines mounted
on gems and minerals soon became
a popular range, and, together
with figurines mounted in his box,
"Crystal Showcase™",
he created an excellent range of gifts
and souvenir lines which continue
to be popular to this day.

As the popularity of his fine
lead-free pewterware grew
he was able to invest in more
injection moulding tools and became
the leading supplier, in Australia,
of high quality acrylic presentation
and packaging products.
First, there was a set of three
larger boxes based on the
original "Crystal Showcase™"
idea and then a dome and base
set for the "Heritage Collection"
of his fine pewter figurines.

He made his products interesting by
including Australian gems and
minerals in the diorama's which he
created in his studio in Aspendale.
Gems and minerals were cheap
in those days and he was able
to make the diorama's with the
inclusion of such colourful gems as
opal, crocoite, chrysoprase, pyrite,
orange calcite, galena, green fluorite,
quartz crystals, smoky quartz and
a host of others that he would
give an arm and leg for today.

His presentations were educational
and included a full description
of the gem or mineral. Each of
the figurines depicting part of
Australia's unique heritage.
A history of fauna, marine life
and flora were adequately
described to educate the purchaser.
He mined malachite from
Browns Prospect, Northern Territory
and purchased drums of pyrite
from Peru, quartz geodes from Mexico,
amethyst from Brazil, quartz groups
from various localities and chrysoprase
from Marlborough, Queensland
for mounting the pewter figurines.

One day he had a phone call from
some tourists from the USA
wanting to buy opal. They did
not have a means of transport to
get over to see his showroom and,
as he had always had an interest
in meeting people from other parts
of the world, he made
arrangements to take some opals
over to show them. After an
evening chatting they told him that,
whilst travelling through a
seaside town of Lakes Entrance
on the south coast Victoria,
they had purchased these fabulous
souvenirs, "THE BEST WE HAVE SEEN!",
which were so well presented
and informative. He had to see them
(He wanted to know what the
opposition were doing);
they unpacked them and to his
amazement, they were his souvenirs.
It's a small world and the internet
has made the world smaller
and brought us all closer.

He enjoys trading and if both parties can walk away believing they have both got a good deal then that is the way he wants it. He is proud of the quality and presentation of his products and strives to be better, maybe not the best, but the best he can be. He has always offered good service and quality of workmanship in the products he manufactures.
He has a great eye for detail and his ideas and
concepts are well known in Australia.

Although he had stocks of overseas materials he was quickly running out of Australian materials which were the most popular as souvenirs in Australia. What did he do? He went prospecting again and discovered seventy deposits of gems and minerals and made contacts with miners for purchase of gems or minerals. From 1974 to early 1980's he had prospected in the Wave Hill area of Northern Territory, Australia and discovered huge deposits of prehnite, quartz geodes, smoky quartz geodes, amethyst geodes, agates and a number of other minerals. The potential of the area was enormous but the logistics of mining and managing the deposits were incomprehensible as it was at the northern edge of the Tanami Desert some 4,000 Kilometres form
his base in Melbourne, Victoria.

Everything was hard to get out there; the nearest 'watering hole' (an Aussie expression for a pub) was 170 Kilometres away, not that that mattered, he had bore water close by. He later found that the town of Wave Hill, now renamed Kalkarindji, had a club called "Frank's Bar and Grill" - so he joined. It wasn't long before he got banned, and it wasn't for drinking, using abusive language being rude or fighting! He has a lot of stories to tell about his experiences in the bush, and from his travels overseas, that people who know him say "You should write a book"; He says he will one day - when he has time! However, if you ever get to meet Gerry he can certainly relate the tales to you in typical Aussie style over a few beers, or around a camp fire under the crystal clear Australian outback skies, experiences which he still longs for.

The most amazing gem he discovered was a fascinating gem grade golden Prehnite, perfectly transparent and extremely rare. Whilst the prehnite deposit is vast there is only one area where the gem grade can be obtained. His wife, Linna, purhcased the lease for the Prehnite in 2013 and they mine the material each year.

Because of the enormity of the project he needed to raise funds to mine the deposit and bring to the world some new and interesting gems and minerals. During the late '80's he was involved in prospecting for, and mining, rhodonite near Tamworth, New South Wales, with orders coming in from Asia for 40 tonnes per month. As he had several mining tenements, he wrote a proposal in 1988 to raise funds to establish a mobile mining plant to travel from mine to mine to extract sufficient materials to carry through to the next dry season in the north of Australia.
The proposal also sought funds to establish a gem processing tourist attraction in Australia and a place where gem merchants could come from
all over the world to promote their wares and buy
and sell gems and minerals.

The economic situation in Australia at the end of the 1980's was bad, to say the least. All the high fliers of the early to mid '80's were falling flat. Our national hero who captured the treasured "America's Cup" (sorry about mentioning that - hehe) had become a fallen hero and Chris Skase was packing his bags to leave the country to fly to Spain and leave his problems behind. It was a bad time to raise funds and after almost a year of working on the proposal and promotion of it he was left with no ready cash but plenty of assets and little hope of mining the deposits. The only people to make any money out of the proposal were the legal eagles and accountants and he had wasted a year of his time in doing all the research essential for a genuine proposal.

One good thing did come out of all this and that was an idea he had to simulate gems and opals using computer generated images and holograms. At this time he knew nothing about computers but had an idea. He bought an Apple IIe computer with a ZARDAK word processing software, yes with the old 5.5" floppy drive for drafting ideas but suddenly realised that pretty soon computers would be linked to laser copiers and printers. He made some colour copies of gems and opals and proceeded to remove the image from the paper onto other materials using heat. After all, the toners were plastic and were fused to the paper and his logic told him that if you can put the image on the paper, by heating, you should also be able to get it off using similar heat. Using an old iron, he ironed the image onto fabrics, which he still has and, even after several washing and over 30 years later, they are still clearly visible on the material.

He applied for patents on "Simulated Gemstones" which were granted in 1991, and, over a number of years from 1991, proceeded to develop and perfect the process of simulating opal. Over $A2.5M was spent in Australia and overseas on patent applications, injection moulding tools and overseas travel to see whether anything similar was on the market. There wasn't. Patents were held in Australia and USA.

With an investment from a Taiwanese investor In 1993 he moved his operation to Taiwan and worked there for a year trying to establish a jewellery range and making tools for mass producing the finished jewellery. He called the new gem "Opalus™".
He is looking for oversees distributors for this unique fashion jewellery range and is currently working on new injection moulding tools for display packaging, promotional items and
unique points of sale to promote the range.

Whilst developing the process it was necessary to learn computer graphics - everyone thought that he was too old to learn, but never tell him "You can't do it". He learned Adobe Photoshop™, Adobe Illustrator™, QuarkXpress™ to make a range of unlimited random opal patterns. He then designed a range of random patterned holograms to test the process and finally developed a unique method of making the original plates. Using a variety of other materials he finally had a product which he was happy with. A year in Taiwan was enough for him and he returned to Australia to complete the process and raise more funds
to mass produce the range.

It is never easy to be a pioneer but with perseverance he had dragged the project like an anchor to a stage where it was almost ready for release on the market with full back up promotional point of sale and new concept display packaging.

In 1994, had had a hip replacement as a result of an accident in 1989 and was up and walking in just a few weeks. The physios were surprised but he still had a dream to fulfill. He went back to Taiwan in 1995 and collected his tools, collection and materials. Upon returning to Australia, he set up a business making simulated opals and souvenirs using the techniques he invented and patented.

More to follow soon.......... as we find time. If you have any questions, please feel free to eMail us: ASK 

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The company opened it's first Showroom at
686 - 716 Leakes Road, Plumpton, Victoria 3335
on  28th September, 2008
Our NEW
modern Gallery/Showroom is now Open.
By Appointment Only

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email : sales@openallday.com.au
Openallday Pty. Ltd.
ABN: 71 741 396 535
Mobile Phone: Australia 0401 284 307
If No Answer Call:
0413 060 761

Gerry + 61 401 284 307
China Office:
+86 138 7887 9925
Postal Address:
12 Aries Chase
Kurunjang, Victoria 3337,
AUSTRALIA

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© COPYRIGHT
COPYRIGHT  
This web site is owned by
Gerald Reginald Pauley and
all photographs, graphics, designs, animations and text are the sole property
of the owner of this site, unless otherwise acknowledged, and come under the protection of the Copyright Act and are, therefore, the copyright property of the owner of this site and may not by copied, downloaded or used for any purpose without the express permission of the owner.
© CCOPYRIGHT, 1965 - 2020 GERALD REGINALD PAULEY


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