Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Bummer they don't give you a copy, i guess they expect you to be a buyer already if you know about it?

I don't know Crawford stones, just that we had an active thread about your wraps and then I turned the page and had a wrap bigger than life in my face. More of a nice confirmation of a trend?

I also know other folks that wrap ( The Rock club, lapidary friends, etc...) but you got to make yourself stand out of the crowd. And yes, using pure metals is good but also more costly so your base customers need to know that. More the art side than as apposed to just a hobby level.

Maybe you should add a category to your store to wrap a cab provided by the customer? Does anyone do that? Could be a nich market.

I think the wrappers are known for doing your stone in a custom wrap. One of the things that made it so popular. Not a huge investment to wear a sentimental stone. I used to wrap whatcha brought for 10 in SS and 15 in GF. 20 & 30 now and thats not complex LOL. Hated arrowheads in case they re-chipped/ never did and really weird stuff, like a Ivory Roulette ball, Realgar Crystal, or the raw elk teeth I had to shape first and opals... I broke at least every 4th one getting it down. Scott at the Opal Negra does a good business in custom wraps. I saw you win that KJ. Good on ya.

opalcreations wrote:I had no idea that existed.

Me neither! lol One of the editors PMed me on FB and asked me if I'd be interested in submitted. So I did.

Brightlights wrote:Maybe you should add a category to your store to wrap a cab provided by the customer? Does anyone do that? Could be a nich market.

I'm not confident enough to do that. lol I did have a friend ask and I quoted her $45 for Sterling. She thought it was too expensive. :/

SwordfishMining wrote:I saw you win that KJ. Good on ya.

Thanks!

Congratulations, KJ!

If she was supplying the stone I have a sneaky suspicion that your friend wanted you to donate your time and skill. Did she ever have someone else do it or has she just left it at that?

Of course, if she's having financial issues it's possible that once she's fluid again she will come to you and tell you to do it, depending on how badly she wants it wrapped.

She's not local. And it's financial problems. I wasn't offended.

Please somebody force us (the government) to pay all crafts people a $15 a hour minimum wage LOL. The few that write me for stones usually figure out pretty quick I am selling my collection (not in production) not stocking a store (no patience or room) and willing to sell it for its rarity value AND the hours I put in...not less than a natural out of a factory goes for a ct. I don't take the no call backs personal at all. I know how little I have to offer up. I do need to go pull the wheels off my Genie to have them refinished (Johnson Bros). I've heard good and bad so I have to try myself for the least possible. Plenty of "hard things" to wear them out with if they don't have finesse for my choice of material; wood replaced by opal. I'm pretty sure the hard cracky vuggy things ate a lot of thosse diamonds off. What do they call Koroit, the opal that eats diamond wheels? (Anything with pits pockets and crevices or edges to clutch the diamonds all away.) Wish the Zeolites/calcites here had color. I'm about to tumble a load of the frothy little cream ones to see what is left. Just pulled a load of scoria, rainbow and purple glass, and another of agates from here, the Kokopelli, carnelian and odd rubs. The Oregon Opal rub that found it way in there came out just fine. Can't leave it not running. Snow is coming again.

Snow "again"? I didn't realize you had snow already, John! It's 70º on my deck, so don't send it this way!!

A lot of people are in that same boat with her, KJ. I, too, can relate since I seldom have discretionary cash to spend and it's a real bummer when I see something I'd really like to have.

PinkDiamond wrote:A lot of people are in that same boat with her, KJ. I, too, can relate since I seldom have discretionary cash to spend and it's a real bummer when I see something I'd really like to have.

Yup. Me too.

These are gorgeous. I especially LOVE the larimar.