300ct Seam Opal

This may look like a pork chop, but it is, in fact, a 300ct Seam Opal piece from Lightning Ridge.

It looks like it may cut as white opal, however, I will investigate it further to see if crystal opal could be an option. I have a plan, it’s to create multiple smaller gems rather than one large one. This way, we may end up with a beautiful suite of opals.

The Plan

Using my Gemfish IF1 Flashlight, I can see that it is relatively clean inside, so we’re off to a good start! As I am taking the skin off the outside of the rough, it’s showing some nice play of color. You can see an old crack that has naturally resealed through the middle of the rough. We don’t want that line through any of our gems, so I will have to slice directly through it. Before I do that, I will slice 2 little pieces off an end to look at the color, patterns and how it faces.

Slice & Dice

After slicing through the old crack, I see good color on both sides. Next, I need to clean the pieces up a little and take off any cloudy parts. As I mentioned, we are going for a set of opals, which excites me greatly! It’s not often I have the opportunity to make a set of multiple opals. With my trusty marker, I will draw a line for each gem I wish to cut. Back to the slicer!

300ct Seam Opal turns into…

The plan worked, we have 12, yes 12 matching opals! The color bar was thick enough to maximise the number of gems we could cut, without sacrificing their sizes. What a win, I am stoked! 12 opals totalling 29.70cts. Imagine the possibilities of what you could do with this suite of opals. My initial idea was an epic bracelet, however, you’re only limited by your imagination.