New Cut opal

Hi all,

After a first attempt of posting this went a little wrong thanks to Puss jumping on the keyboard (thanks for the deletion Mr Bond...), thought I'd show one of my latest bits of work.

It's a nice bit of Coober Pedy crystal opal that I've finished. Quite a bright one but the photos don't really do it justice.

My Nikon always shows really vibrant electric blues so I've toned them down a bit. Besides the lovely multi coloured flashes all over, it also has a nice sort of rolling golden yellow flash inside as well! it has a very small sand inclusion on one side that you can see in the video.

As well as the photos, I've also tried to post a link to a video...hope it works OK and please excuse any out of focus bits...opals are difficult to capture at the best of times!

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https://youtu.be/ccUBFEsKsuE

That is lovely Pusscat - have you decided what you're going to do with it?

Thanks for the kind comment Sally.

To be honest, not sure! I’ve been cutting and polishing opals and realistically I should be selling them on to be mounted in jewellery. I have a website / blog where I’m describing and displaying them but I really should open an Etsy shop or the like!

I envisaged this one to be in a ring. Either with a black background to the mount or as is, the colours and flashes are rather nice...

Very nice Peter. I know very little about stones of any kind but I had a look at your website and interesting to read how you create these.

Thanks Maria!

Beautiful.

I've only recently started to cut and carve my own shell and stones but as I am working with hand tools it takes a loooong time and is very much a labour of love rather than a commercial venture. I am currently cutting and carving abalone collected from the beach in Kaikoura, NZ as wings in various sizes/shapes for a collection of butterflies and some green prase opal that I bought from Australia which I am slowly turning into the bodies. I'll post pictures when complete along with the work in progress shots.

How do you decide which rough to purchase or is it very much pot luck as you can't really tell what you have until you start to cut?
Look forward to seeing more of your gorgeous opals.

Ceri.

It looks amazing Peter! I love opals, so do let me know if you do set up an etsy shop!

Thanks SWiftpint...will do!