Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

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rocks2dust
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by rocks2dust »

Gorgeous!!!
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Shea_O
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by Shea_O »

PinkDiamond wrote:Looking good, Shea. What shape will you make it, freeform or oval? It looks like it's wedge shape at the moment, and it looks like a really good one, so good luck with it. :)


Well that’s the hard part.....deciding on a shape.. it’s been a battle just to have gotten the stone this far.

I have been looking at the stone for about a month, as it is in its current form in this most recent video and I’m at a crossroads.

It’s currently somewhat of a “wedge” shape or a “fingernail” shape and the slope on the dome is very uneven due to some emergency work I had to do.

‘Turns out there are definite no-no’s with storing VV opals, of which I am documenting... I inadvertently caused some surface cracks in the spot on the side of the dome where it dips oddly... It is always a trial by fire experience when working with VV opals but after having successfully chased out cracks in a VV black opal....Let me say that again, I sucessfully chased out cracks in a Virgin Valley opal. That is certainly no small feat and I thank my attention to detail and my laboratory experience.....but it was a dreadful situation to be in, spending many hours hunched over this stone in a state of almost continuous adrenaline and sweat pouring down my sides and back.... yeah that was not a fun experience but I did it. The technique to make it possible went far beyond what my opal mentor even thought of doing, but it is a painstakingly meticulous process..and harder to pull off with adrenaline haha

So with this context in mind and due to the rarity of the material.. I am compelled to go with freeform. Unfortunately due to the freeform the stone won’t show its POC optimally... unless I find a better freeform shape for the dome.... which makes me wonder if slicing it in half along the X axis would be better. It would yield me the current dome and a new flat face to work with.

But thinking about slicing this material in half is the stuff of nightmares. The material is notoriously difficult to work with in any circumstance and so far..with my experience working it and my knowledge of opal in general.... it feels like too high of a risk to slice it. I worry about the initial cut and the last few mm of slicing.... those two points are the peak moments of danger to cause cracks in the stone, which if happens only become exacerbated by the continued cutting until the halves are separate..

I might have to look at it for another month
Shea_O
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by Shea_O »

UPDATE

The Black Hole has been cut. I waited for over a year and its day had come. I have been polishing it for a while now.

Still a long ways to go. There are many places where the honeycomb pattern is still just under the surface and you can see there is a thin layer left to be polished away. I hope the stone can handle whats left to be done, it's looking amazing. I've wondered so many times what the peacock pattern would look like from the top and now we know that the peacock pattern was the cross section of the honeycomb columns.

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PinkDiamond
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by PinkDiamond »

Nice work Shea, I'm delighted to see it's still intact and showing off those gorgeous colors so nicely. :)
PinkDiamond
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Shea_O
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by Shea_O »

:mrgreen: I have gotten most of the way finished with cutting The Black Hole!

Currently weighs 12ct wet and there’s maybe a month of work left.

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SwordfishMining
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Re: Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

Post by SwordfishMining »

I shared that to my FB group to move the unpleasantness down a bit. its coming along great. I call that pattern of play of color Plume Garden.
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