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Post by opalpyrexia on Dec 6, 2019 19:08:21 GMT -5
A few years ago I had purchased a very small parcel of Australian boulder opal that included both halves of a split. Boulder opal is seam opal and a "split" is a piece of rough that has been split, usually by the miner. If done well and with lots of luck, the split will yield good opal on both faces. Both of the two halves had three small areas of precious opal. Unfortunately, the smallest areas did not survive the trim saw.
After sawing out the two pairs it was clear that they were meant to be earrings. After rough-shaping them on the lap, I glued them back-to-back and did final shaping by hand — here they are prior to that step:
After separating and dopping them, it was on to the wheels. Easiest cutting ever. The great thing about opal splits is that you can't improve the polish of the split surface — it's finer than any final polishing can achieve. So cutting at this point is trivial: round off the corners and do a very slight rounding of just the edges. I took the top edges to 3000 in no time at all.
These will (eventually!) be bezel set, but the bezel edges will be slightly higher than the opal (for protection) and only slightly be turned over the opal (to avoid flaking). I will also use a very tiny drop of 330 epoxy under each.
The fire was impossible to photograph. You can see the blue fire on one. Both of them will give nice bright flashes in dangle earrings. The top third of the larger green ones have interesting patterns, but the light show is all in the bottom 2/3rds where thin, vertical, bright green lines turn on and off as the opals move.
For scale, the larger of the two pairs is 13 mm tall or about 1/2 inch.
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller 
Member since June 2011
Posts: 4,064 
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Post by gemfeller on Dec 6, 2019 19:16:57 GMT -5
Nice! It reminds me I have several I need to get to work on.
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Post by fernwood on Dec 6, 2019 19:27:48 GMT -5
Those are beautiful. Very inspiring.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Dec 6, 2019 19:31:12 GMT -5
Love them! Reminds me, also, that I have some boulder splits laying around somewhere. Have to see if I can find them.
Looking forward to seeing the finished earrings eventually.  |
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Post by MsAli on Dec 6, 2019 20:43:39 GMT -5
Those are going to be stunning!
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,688
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Post by NRG on Dec 6, 2019 20:49:58 GMT -5
Need a video!!
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Post by opalpyrexia on Dec 6, 2019 21:14:04 GMT -5
Nice! It reminds me I have several I need to get to work on.
I hear you, Rick. I brought the split pairs to my opal presentation and, after looking them over and watching fellow members ooh and aah over them, I kicked myself in the butt and finally got going.
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Post by opalpyrexia on Dec 6, 2019 21:15:50 GMT -5
I agree! But I'll wait until I put 'em in earrings. It will show them off better.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,688
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Post by NRG on Dec 6, 2019 21:40:38 GMT -5
I agree! But I'll wait until I put 'em in earrings. It will show them off better.
Good call. Keep up the good works! |
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Post by miket on Dec 6, 2019 22:04:15 GMT -5
Gorgeous, I love the colors.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 6, 2019 22:38:02 GMT -5
Great job. Those are gonna be beautiful. Looking forward to the finished product. Never thought I’d say that about earrings lol.
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julieooly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2018
Posts: 721 
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Post by julieooly on Dec 9, 2019 21:25:56 GMT -5
Beautiful! Ok so I'm a noob so I can ask dumb questions. If the opals are fragile, why not stabilize them like turquoise and other materials?
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Dec 10, 2019 9:40:34 GMT -5
Boulder opal is tough. The matrix is ironstone. No need to stabilize them. Ma Nature has already done it! 
As an aside, opals in general are not as fragile as most people think. They are anywhere between a 6-7 on the mohs scale. If you drop them on concrete, they will break just like any other rock. They are heat sensitive to a certain extent, meaning that if they are subjected to extreme changes in temperature in a very short period of time, they will crack (think heating them up and then plunging them into cold water).
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