Cutting Opal Gems

[OpalSpectrum]

thanks , I really like this type of aqua-blue-green fire combo

it was great lot but couple stones ended smaller then I wanted - but still worth it
next I have some other stuff - light & crystal material from different mine in LR

in the meantime

I made this funky video with some nice opal slices from LR
cool specimens with great fire & patterns

opal disco inferno (sound on)

enjoy

[PinkDiamond]

That was fun! You've got some great material there.

[SwordfishMining]

Am I wrong in thinking out of the 30? some pieces shown a couple pages back you got back 6 winners? Just trying to put the parcel concept into perspective for new cutters. If one out of 4 gives a good stone for affordable material, thats a decent return. Not that Im good at crunching sales numbers. I dig a bunch of rough taking a lot of effort and years later there are a few gems in the case. Not all of it was ever cut or accounted to how many grams per how many miles walked. Getting what the market bears provides enough incentive to not stop until the DOI throws us off. I have been having to open a lot of videos on you tube itself due to their sharing policies per instructions from the FBI. Not just political stuff like the Q page. Some music videos play others dont and many videos were removed from youtube completely so they can't be viewed even if their thumbnail was posted somewhere. I had to hit play then immediately go to watch on youtube in bottom right corner then it opened up in a new window fine?.

[OpalSpectrum]

hard to say , it all depends > I try to buy smaller lots with good quality gems for the good price
in the last lot not all the stones were good but I knew that I will cut couple nice gems from it - I didn't cut every stone because I try to offer 'best quality'
-- I know some 'popular sellers' who would sell the first stone (square-cushion) for at least $1K or more (which is todays market price) but I don't do that - I offer wholesale prices and still some stuff is hard to sell lol ... but this is why you can't really say - there are too many factors to consider
some people have good marketing and sell Overpriced-Low Grade-Junk and are very popular and successful - but this is not my 'business strategy'
the simple reason I can offer quality gems at good prices because I buy good rough at good price and I'm not greedy

[OpalSpectrum]

That was fun! You've got some great material there.

actually, these are cutting fails but they are really nice specimens _ I have couple more but these are the best
I collected them from different material I was cutting and later semi-polished and added to my display

[skywalker753]

Hey-- Thanks for posting some good stuff! Your commentary about your opal and process is nice to read as well. Good job!

[OpalSpectrum]

Hey-- Thanks for posting some good stuff! Your commentary about your opal and process is nice to read as well. Good job!

Thanks Sky
& no problem , more good stuff is coming ..just don't have time to make all the videos

[OpalSpectrum]

just finished New episode of OpalSpectrum - 'Lapi-Diary' I mean Cutting Session

[PinkDiamond]

They're gorgeous and I love your commentary. Thanks for sharing your work with us! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[OpalSpectrum]

I'm planning to make 2 more sessions this year and next year I will probably change the format/style of the videos
I don't see the point of making same videos all the time and in my opinion Justin did everything about cutting the opals >> that is why I just show and comment on more interesting or useful stuff
I'm making cutting videos only for fun and maybe to show my clients how my opals are cut -- because there are tons of poorly cut stones and the problem is most people don't care because they don't really know about it and don't understand the difference