This humble piece of rough nobby opal certainly does take us from a zero to 100 in a short, albeit intense, amount of time.
I didn’t have the highest of expectations for this piece of rough opal, it only showed quite a thin color bar from the outside — but I had a hunch the color may be nice and bright inside.
My biggest worry was if the potch didn’t actually touch the color, then it wouldn’t be a black opal at all.
As well as the big blobs of sand inside which may protrude into the color itself, resulting in a smaller gemstone.
To be honest, I definitely felt the pressure in this cut but luckily years of experienced helped me make some educated decisions to guide me through.
A Word to the Wise
If you want to start cutting opal take baby steps.
Firstly, start with potch — once you have a bit more confidence move on to something with color.
If you don’t have machinery, you can do it by hand — I show you how in this video – https://youtu.be/6MW7vLNSSE8
Risk into Reward
The end result has truly blown my mind!
This beautiful Black Opal has the most unique colors of blue, green, yellow and red.
There is one tiny little inclusion you can see if you’re looking through a loupe but it certainly doesn’t detract from the beauty of this gem.
The final cut came in much larger than I expected at 2.55ct — almost a whole carat more.
A $500 investment turned into a $5000 gem, not a bad day in the workshop.
Thanks for joining me once again and I hoped you enjoyed the journey.
Find the cracker black opal here – https://blackopaldirect.com/product/black-opals/2-55-ct-black-opal-11-3×8-5x4mm/
