re: #353 prairiefire

I can’t believe how strong the market is for synthetic opal. I bought two pieces at a gem show for my girls as it was cheap and will hold up. Still, it’s synthetic.

Nothing personal… gag… opal is my favorite stone, gem, period. And cutting it is like a treasure hunt. Very few pieces of raw opal just scream out “color.” You have to examine the piece, see where the color bands are, decide how much you are going to grind away to get near the bands, but not too far. And as you are grinding, you see that the color band stops, or curves away, or doesn’t have as much color as appeared at the edge and so on.

And sometimes, you have a piece of opal potch that has no color, but you cut it along one side, and inside is a wonderful band of color.

It has all the thrill (and disappointment) of treasure hunting, held in the palm of your hand.