Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Hey y'all. I haven't weighed these yet or taken individual photos but I finally got a batch finished. They've been on the dop for several months. There's still a few that I returned to to dop for further work but these are done. One of them is from the gift 8's sent me. (ETA: Oops. Nope. Her's is still on the dop not finished) I'll get an individual photo of that in my other thread. Still working on the carvings. They need more polishing in the crevices so I didn't get their photos yet.

Nice work

Sweet eye candy first thing in the morning. Thanks!

TY!!

Those are awesome KJ.
There is just a feeling of satisfaction that cannot be explained by cutting and polishing your own stones, and then, to take it one step further, setting them in a piece.
Great job

I really miss not having opal to cut. I recently picked up a single piece at my club show. It was about a 2 gram piece. I don't know how the vendor found it but the whole tray was all black welo. I had picked a piece while at the show and being that I was demonstrating on the genie I was able to work the piece some. Well it fell apart into three pieces. I went back to the vendor and he allowed me to pick another piece. I waited until I got home to work it and again it fell apart. I ended up with only two decent cabs of 2 carats or so. Both are really purty stones with a black base so I guess I got my money's worth.
I really miss not having the guys that used to let me cut for them. They have completely given up on the idea. Being that I'm a poor boy the idea of buying opal has become moot.. no money in it. I was perfectly happy cutting bunches of opal only for a few stones that I was able to keep. My pleasure is in the cutting not money. I still have nearly all of those stones. a few I set in jewelry but those were the smaller ones. All the bigger and more beautiful stones I refuse to let go of.
I recon I should be happy that I ever had the chance that I did. If it had not been for the few people that trusted me to cut for them I would have never had the pleasure of having literally hundreds of stones in my hands. LOL I used to cut them in groups of 25 or so...Plus with that many going through my hands I had the pleasure of viewing of some unreal opals up close and personal. So I must admit it has been a wonderful experience spanning multiple years that I will cherish the memories of forever. Still it hurts.

Maybe you can go to some of the sellers we know on OA and ask if anyone could use a cutter to assist them.

Well that's too bad Jim.
I feel for ya man, really I sincerely do.

I'm kinda in the same boat, no money for what I call "real" opals, but that's just because I'm spoiled now for high value stones, now that I've handled a few in my day.

What keeps me going it the boulders I've been cutting lately, they are affordable, and there is reward in the finished product because they look like decent stones when finished.

They may not be super high value stones, but they present a challenge in cutting them, and I like the challenge. Like you, the pleasure is in the workmanship, not the profit, but that reward is always nice too

If you can handle the mess, why don't you pick up some boulder opals and get back in the game?

They can be had pretty cheaply

Chris

Last year I dropped a pretty penny (well, for me at least) in some rough to try and find material for carving. I still have some of it left but it's starting to get picked over.

Sooner or later I'll run across something.