Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Opal => Topic started by: vitzitziltecpatl on April 15, 2020, 07:59:09 PM
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There's been a bit more interest in opal of all kinds here lately, so I'm posting a photo of piece of Ridge opal I cut some time ago. It just shows what used to be more readily available to us "hobby cutters".
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What great color changes, Ridge Opal was from where? Always great to look back and see the folly. Back when Rutilated Quartz was considered dump material and excellent quality Turquoise and Opals were affordable.
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Thanks Vince, nicely cut oval...makes me very happy to look at your pics..I have banged on enough about how badly the majority of our Aussie opal is cut (by us Aussies). I love the way all you guys treasure every stone you cut and make it the most beautiful it can be...from opal to agates to Jaspers and everything in between.
I will put some perspective on opal prices. For many years I had an unlimited order for c and c plus grade triplets. When things were slow, I would buy large parcels of milky ‘grey’ material (mostly pinfire, but up to weaker red grey material)..for those outside the opal fields, this means white based milky material...
I would pay between Aud$80 to $150 oz depending on the size, which would cut around 30 to 35% c+ and the rest C. From this I had an unlimited ongoing order for all sizes from 6x4 through to 18x13. I sold millions of stones to just one large company. I used to get $1.00 for 8x6 up to $10 for C grade 18x13’s, about 35% more for C plus.
Here is the problem.. this same white based rough now goes at $650 to $800 an ounce.... and the large triplet buyers are not paying much more for the triplets..hence why I gave it away (triplet cutting in large volume) back in 2013.
Nowadays I only buy two or three parcels of rough a year. I buy the best quality rough I can get for solids and high quality doublets.
We have wound back our business and just cut for our own jewellery which my wife makes (jeweller). I think I would struggle now if I tried to re start my wholesale business, buying parcels, cutting triplets, solids and doublets and selling them to the mainstream wholesale buyers.
It would be just as difficult for me to follow my other business model which was to sell to manufacturing jewellers (custom jewellery), in the US....selling cut stones in regular small quantities, which I did for many years.
I think the opal prices whilst much higher, are probably about right. Opal mining has become increasingly prohibitive, in terms of operational costs, and in regulatory costs and physical impingement for want of a better word ( think rehabilitation, safe work etc).
Good cutting rough opal is very hard to buy, even for this bloke who served a 20yr apprenticeship in Coober Pedy married to second generation opal fields girl!
Australian Opal is a rare stone, and compared to other gems is seemingly expensive.
But does anything else really compare?
And is any stone as pleasurable to work with?
The piece below was bought by a friend of mine for six figures...after every other large buyer turned their nose up at it.
I have cut a lot of big parcels from Lambina (Opal field north of Coober Pedy not too far from Mintabie), and this is the biggest cleanest piece I have seen...isn’t it a beauty!
It is Lambina opal.
Cheers,
Mike
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Firstly, sorry for the vague naming of this thread. The opal I posted is from Lightning Ridge, Australia. There's every color in the rainbow in that little cab. I just used the three with the widest variety for that combo image.
Secondly, I'll never want to post another opal photo after seeing that Lambina!!! Hard to believe so many people passed on it. Can't tell how thick it is, but it must weigh nearly half a kilo. At least a quarter kilo if it's thinner. I've seen large pieces, but none that large!
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That Lambina is the bees knees! Lambina has always been my favorite opal field. I would have had a stroke if I actually saw that in person. :drool:
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This is a 16.91 ct . Lambina rough I've been dithering about cutting. I bought it with carving in mind but after studying it I think it will yield a nice largish matched pair of ovals. Now, if I can just keep my hands from shaking too much as I try to saw it...
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The Lambina piece I posted was closer to a kilo. You can see the length and thickness in the pic. It was about 5 inches deep as well. You can see how far back in the hand it is.
Rick, your piece is a serious piece of opal, I would say considerably better colour! It also faces better through the top! The piece I posted is best cut on the side face, although inside the stone when it was cut up there were some quite dark thin bands of orange red. These sections cut some semi black crystal solids which were worth a lot per ct, and were not visible from the outside. Most of the stone has still not been cut, with every stone going into jewellery.
I am not going to weigh in as to how to approach your piece. Either way you are going to have some beautiful gems that can never be replaced!
I still have some smaller pieces from Lambina that I haven’t cut. I like looking at them in the rough too much...
I cut this stone and the others last year. The opal is the best crystal material I have seen, and comes from my favourite field (favourite claim even), on the old 14 mile Coober Pedy. I have had the rough for years. It came from a ‘squibby level’ (shallow false level) out of the red dirt. These upper levels that run through from 14 mile all the way to 23 mile produce incredibly healthy beautiful opal...
Years ago I saw a large parcel of semi black crystal, sizes as big as a match box that came straight off the jasper level that sits on top of the sandstone at 28 feet on the 17 mile field (Coober Pedy). 17 mile produced a heap of opal, with much of it coming from very deep level that was pretty damp. This material was predominantly cut into triplets as it was prone to cracking. The parcel I saw was like porcelain...which is what the better Coober Pedy rough sounds like when you clink it together. I would hate to think what that opal would be worth today!
Cheers,
Mike
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The pics are distorted. Not sure why that happens when I upload pics sometimes, but you can see the colour at least.
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Okay, wow. That "ruff crystal 16" would make a beautiful art piece, oh I'm not an opal expert.
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The pics are distorted. Not sure why that happens when I upload pics sometimes, but you can see the colour at least.
They're all show-stoppers Mike, even distorted. Amazing colors! I've always had a soft spot for multicolor crystal and light opals with vivid saturation.
Good Heavens, a kilo-plus Lambina. I've had to change the display settings on my monitor to compensate for failing eyesight so I have to scroll and can only see a portion of images at one time. I had no idea it was that huge.
I'm happy with my "little" Lambina, and have put off cutting it because I enjoy looking at it in the rough, as you say about some of your opal stash. I'm also a little offish about slicing it up for fear of making a mess of it. I appreciate your expert comments about it. One of these days...
All of the opal images posted here have been great. I love Vince's "Ridge" stone, especially the unusual color display in it. I've seen part of his and Robin's opal rough collection and it's awesome. Looking forward to seeing more of their finished stones.
Thanks again for your expertise and for waking up the opal nuts on the board. I've been thinking about some nice Coober Pedy rough I have with strong red and I may make that a priority in my spring cutting.
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This is a 16.91 ct . Lambina rough I've been dithering about cutting. I bought it with carving in mind but after studying it I think it will yield a nice largish matched pair of ovals. Now, if I can just keep my hands from shaking too much as I try to saw it...
Rick, bring that opal on over and Vince will slice it for you. He's got real steady hands (compared to mine). :laughing6:
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It sounds like you guys are all good friends. The whole lapidary industry in America is something I wish I could have had more time to partake in over the years....like one big family.
It is not like that here in Australia. I only really talk to a few people here who share the same interest in opal, but unfortunately I don’t know anyone else that cuts non opal rough, like all you guys have always done.
I send the odd pic of Marra Mumba or Variscite or something to a couple of friends in the opal business here, but they don’t think too much of any of them....
It has been nice for me to see your pics and share some of mine, and to communicate with all of you...
Thank you,
Mike
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Wow - what fun it is just to see photos of opal like you guys are posting!
We'll never get tired of seeing beauties like these. Gemfeller has seen our little stash. A few decent pieces, but nothing like the 14 Mile parcel posted here by Mike. Some of Robin's old Lambina is close to Gemfeller's, but I don't think there's one in there that good.
We have a video of one Lambina I cut from the rough Robin had before we met. Sliced a "striped" piece of rough into four pieces - it faced better that way just like what you mentioned about the big one, Mike. One of them was pretty darned good.
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Opal Mike we're pleased you are here and showing us some incredible stones. We have a couple of other Aussies on the board -- Auscarver with the winning cab up top is one. He does amazing work. I believe some of his opal carvings are in the archives. Just have to hunt around a bit to find them. :icon_sunny:
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Thanks Robin, I will have a hunt to look at his/ her carvings. Not many carvers here in oz.
Is there a good lapidary magazine to subscribe to these days? I used to look froward to my old lapidary journals arriving, but the new version isn’t the same.
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The only one left besides LJ is Rock and Gems. https://www.rockngem.com
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Opal Mike here's a link to his posts: http://lapidaryforum.net/group/index.php?action=profile;u=375;area=showposts;start=15
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Opal Mike - I just saw your comment about cutting stones other than opal. In a post you did as I was creating one simultaneously.
Robin and I both did it "backward" according to how most people do over here. We started with opal, because that what we liked best!
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Hi Opal Mike,
Yeah Michael (Auscarver) has done a few opal carvings for the LR shows and done very well. Mostly carves in his local Tamworth jade and rhodonite. There is a small cadre of jade carvers here in Oz that surface from time to time.
Most Aussie lapidaries have dabbled in opal at some point, not seen many try to carve it though.
David
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Here is a (bad) picture of a Lambina that had vertical bars and Vince cut it into 4 stones about 10 years ago and a link to an equally bad video of the best one cut https://youtu.be/psMQJF7JHUc
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Yeah, that was funny. Robin said "You're going to do WHAT to my Lambina???. Oh no you're NOT!!!".
It was a cool piece of rough, but would've been a large striped cab with one nice color bar and a couple of lesser ones. Had thin translucent potch layers between the bars, so it was easy enough to slice up. Yielded a decent 7.4 ct stone.
That was the first video I ever tried. It sucked so bad I've never done another... .
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Hi Opal Mike,
Yeah Michael (Auscarver) has done a few opal carvings for the LR shows and done very well. Mostly carves in his local Tamworth jade and rhodonite. There is a small cadre of jade carvers here in Oz that surface from time to time.
Most Aussie lapidaries have dabbled in opal at some point, not seen many try to carve it though.
David
David and All,
I had a somewhat lengthy correspondence with the late Christine Roussel, one of Lightning Ridge's (and Australia's) finest opal carvers. She passed away a few years ago from cancer at a far too young age.
She sent me images of some of her carvings and, time allowing, I'll post a few of them soon. Her work is inspiring and led me to attempting to do some carvings myself -- but I will NOT post images of my very amateurish work :embarrassed:
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These are BEAUTIFUL stones. Thanks to all for posting these special treasures!
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I promised to upload images of some of Christine Roussel's beautiful opal carvings. Here are a few:
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I hope this eye candy gets some creative juices flowing out there. I miss seeing her new work after her passing from breast cancer at too-young an age.
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Wow those are amazing. Some people just have gifts for making art in it's various forms.
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Quite right. Christine had a definite gift but she also had the choicest rough to work with!
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Quite right. Christine had a definite gift but she also had the choicest rough to work with!
True dat. But she also worked with lower grade jellies and less valuable opals. I have images of some I didnt post, like this:
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She also did some great Oregon sunstone carvings like this:
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Wonderful material, she makes even the "lesser" ones into art. Is the third from the top a composite or is the pattern variety natural. Good use of it either way.
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WoW, I really love that sunstone. Amazing the talents people possess. I was reading an old lapidary book and throughout the book it had carvings and all sorts of different types of lapidary and they were all the same woman, Olive Colhour. I was blown away by how varied her talents were and sad I never got to meet her. One page it showed these carvings of roses in pink Coral with Jade leaves and had Quartz water droplets on them and I forget the stalk material but all stone and they looked so life like. It made me think I would be proud if I could carve a single leaf like that.
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Wonderful material, she makes even the "lesser" ones into art. Is the third from the top a composite or is the pattern variety natural. Good use of it either way.
As I recall in discussing that with her, she artistically contrasted the precious opal with the black opal base. I'd had that notion myself but when it came to execution, no cigar on my part.
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I also admired Olive Colheur's work Steve. She was from my era and did wonderful work. I have lots of issues of LJ from the "good old days" that feature her great artistry. There's lots of talent out there, present and past.
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Of course I love the opal carvings, but My goodness, that sunstone is an exquisite piece.. I think she really nailed that one in particular.
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Agreed. That sunstone is amazing. I have a few pieces of schiller sunstone. Maybe I'll try to carve one. :toothy12:
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Question for the oldtimers here ... the old lapidary forum site used to have another incredible carver on it who doesn't seem to post here but I can't recall her name. She carved not just opal but also Australian chrysoprase, top quality turquoise, quartz and other materials, often carving women's faces, alien faces or even once an opal native American face with a headdress. Sheoften cast silver or gold to mould around the faces and in addition to pendants and pins, also made many avant garde small vases and display pieces. Does anyone recall her handle/name? I wanted to look up her pieces again but can't recall.
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Was it possibly Debbie K? You could search the archive from the old forum to find images.
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Here's Debbie K's website: http://dlskdesigns.com/
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Yes! That's her. Thank you both so much! I wanted to look at her pieces again for inspiration!