Opals are quite spectacular.
We picked up a few cheaper pieces from a local shop to try our hand.
There is alot to learn concerning opals and some are worth considerably more than others.

Here is a great site to start learning about opals for those interested.
www.Opalsmith.com

The opal in the pic is the 2nd opal I've done from scratch.....whew, man it's tough to do with partial bands rather than solid opal color. This piece was a band in the "potch" material.

The play of color is mainly the blue with hints of the green you see.
Is a low grade white piece....
Still looks really pretty though....and of course is much nicer to the human eye in sunlight. Hard to catch the flash/play on the color with the camera.

Anyone else have any pics of opals they have worked or other links to opal websites?

CP

This is my favourite Dan, its a must read, lots of rough opal for sale and a monthly journal of a working opal miner,

Nice lookn rock Dan. You did a fine job. Joe

Good job Dan!

Here is a picture of opals that Snowdog gave us in water.

Lets cut and polish them puppies. hehe Joe

Here is a link to the Wyoming USGS on opals. http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/metals/CedarRimOpalField.aspx

Thanks for the link Sparky.

Here is a pic of some rough pieces Wyodust gave us.
Pieces are Australian....nice colors.

One black piece came out rather nice....I'll try to get a photo posted...hard to get a pic of the color flash in cabbed opal sometimes.


CP

that wyodust must be some kind of nice guy



the piece you cabbed looks great buddy

Wyo.
Thank you all for the compliments.
Here is a pic of the Black Opal that will soon be on it's way north to Wyoming.

Turned out pretty nice I thought.
Weight is 1 ct.

CP

wow dano, looks awesome, thanks

Thats really nice dan.

this is the link that i thought i had posted.

http://www.internetopals.com/Updates/archi.../archived-3.htm

Thanks for the kind compliments folks!

Everybody was talking about opals so much this week in chat .........it got me wanting to cab some......so here is what turned up from the rough in the pictures above after some very careful cabbing.....whew took a while too!

Two of these came from one piece ......first pic of rough.....long skinny piece on top left.

Hard to get 4 opals to play the light in one pic....but this shows some of each ones color.
In real life they are much much flashier!

Oh and before anyone asks......big tear drop is for my sweety!

Enjoy
CP

Thanks honey, they turned out great!

Here's another small opal cab done this last week in the CP lap shop.

Man it's tough to catch the flash of color in the pics on some opals....

CP

Here are a few videos about opal......

Gemology of precious opal

Opal cutting video

Here is an opal matrix Jim sent out to see what cabs lived inside.

We are thinking it's mexican fire opal in matrix.......how about you?

A pic of a rough piece

and here are the cabs that came out of their shells in the CP lapidary shop.

Looks alot different after the lapidary shop.

CP

Here is a ring made for Jim and Barbara Polk from one of the above opals Dan cut from rough. It was tricky to get the play of color in the picture.
Steve

Yeah looks mexican opal to me,probably comes to life when under water and loses colour when dry.

nice ring, sweeeeeeeeeet

Thanks wyodust,
Eldorado did a fine job on the ring.We are very happy with his work and pricing.
He also did the work in record time, and kept us posted on his progress. Iwould recommend him to anyone.The stone came from Dan and Denise.Again if anyone is thinking about getting opal jewelry made one could not go wrong in using thier services.Dan and denise have opal on hand and they are willing to go that extra mile to please thier friends.
Thanks Steve, Dan, and Denise for a delightful process of making a great ring.
Jim

Thank you Jim for the kind compliment. Very nice ring El D, nice work!

We are going to try out some boulder opal from a small lot of rough we recently purchased. These are four pieces that headed to the trim saw today along with a small teddy bear sculpture Mrs.CP just started on.

Hope they turn out nice......time will tell.

CP

Jim,
Thank you for the kind words. I really had fun making this ring.

Here are the first couple cabs from the boulder rough batch above.......both pieces are from the rough pic piece to the lower right.

Boulder opal is fun too....

Enjoy
CP

EL D makes the absolute best jewelry... If you don't like his work, then you have no taste whatsoever and need to crawl back under the rock...

D&D, those boulder opals are really nice... maybe I can get me some of those during the Rally...

Here is another cool like with lots of info on Opal.

Information on Opal

what is the hardness of opal (range) and what hardness is it "usually" referenced as?


Opal is listed in most references with a hardness of 5½. This is not fully correct, since some Opals are as low as 4½ and some as high as 6½.

What is opal's specific gravity

1.90 to 2.23

Opals Specific gravity is 3.22 - 3.45

1.) what page they are both on Pg. 2
2.) who posted them Dan
3) when did they post them Apr 17 2007

1) what page they are both, who posted them, date?
pg 1 and 2 , coloradoProspector, Dec 13 2006, 08:43 AM Apr 17 2007, 05:33 PM

1.) what page they are both on 1&2
2.) who posted them Dan and El Dorado
3) when did they post them Feb 4 2007 and Apr 18 2007

what page they are both, who posted them, date?
pg 1 Mrs CP, Dec 9 2006, 03:08 PM
pg 2 ColoradoProspector Apr 17 2007, 05:33 PM

You all did fantastic last night in chat with all the questions. Didnt know we had so many Opal fans here.

<-----------Loves Opal!!

Here is another Opal link I think you all will enjoy.
OPALINDA

Here's another piece of the Mexican fire opal that was sent out for lapidary work from Nova Scotia. This rock has already traveled a long long ways........
So, now it's here in Colorado and we will see what beauty can be hacked out!

A pic of the rough chunk.......not really big.

This pic shows the two pieces after cutting with oval cab patterns marked also.

Looks like the window is opening up there.

And from the front side after finishing the windown on the larger one is wide open!! The smaller one is very thin and the matrix flashes all through the redish tinted areas.
Man this is some pretty neat stuff......and these pictures can't show a quarter of the flash............red, orange, green, blue, yellow and........whew boy!

And when rolled or moved in the sunlight..... OH MY!!

As you can see there are a couple little fractures within and one at the tip but I just can't bring myself to buzz off all that purty opal meat..........no no no.
This oval is a 24 x 14 mm and 6 mm thick weighing in at a chunky 15 carats.

Enjoy

WOW Dan nice work.......it's always cool to see the before and after and the steps inbetween

Really beautiful Dan!

Reminds me of planet with a transparent globe.

whoa dan,
thats some purty opal ya got there,and as usual it looks like you have captured its best.

Beautiful opal. Have you ever done any emerald? I bought some and was trying to figure out what to do with it. I'm just beginning to get into lapidary work so I'm a newbie at this stuff. Dan do you ever come to Albuquerque to any of the gem & mineral shows?

wow that has a lot of pop to it!!!

You did a fantastic job on that piece of Opal Dan!!

This is a great site for learning more about the ins and outs of Opal.
Opalinfo.com


Here is a little Opal guitar with an Opal inlay for the center In the works.
This will go with the Opal teddy bear Im working on(page 2 of this thread).

Click to view attachment

Here is a Australian Boulder Opal. I love the colors in this one!
Sure shows the patterns in the stone and its purple and light blue colors well. The color flashes are purple, blue and green out of the light like shown,
and green, blue and bright pink in the sun. Here is picture of both the front and back side.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Wow!!!That's a beauty!

I'm on a roll!! I did purty good with my fire agate pics so I'm gonna try a piece of white that I've had for a long time. This piece is 3/4 inch long by about 3/8 inch. It's such a wierd shape that I've yet to figure out what to do with it. The fire runs all the way through the piece.

You like that last one I posted? "It weights at 12 cts and is 25 mm long and 6.35 mm thick." We decided to add it to the Stash Compartment of prizes. Its going to make someone happy, and a drawing is coming up soon (12/22)!!!

Nice work on the white Opal Jim, lots of flash in that one! I see a bird sitting there with its head up looking to the sky.
Keep up the good work!

Dear Mrs. CP:

Many years ago, my family acquired an opal collection, some of which was from geologists working in Australia more than 60 years ago. Since I am more familiar with gemstones composed of the driest minerals (tektite) my limited experience with the "wet" opal mineralogy has generated some questions.

Here are two photos I took tonight of some of our Boulder Opal specimens.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I was told by the original collector that the thick veins of opal in the matrix is better preserved in water until it is cut. I have always made sure that these specimens were submerged under water in the jars just like when they were purchased. Do you think this is correct? I am always worried about the water freezing and damaging the opal... especially with this morning’s low temp of -17 F! If these specimens could be stored dry, it would be less of a concern and worry when winter sets in.

Sincerely,

Astrobleme