Allawah Opal

Allawah Opal can be a little tricky to cut, especially deciphering which way to face the gem.

 
The Allawah Opal field is known to produce spectacular Crystal Opals, let’s hope this one isn’t an exception.

Allawah Opal

The Allawah Opal field is approximately 20 km north of Lightning Ridge and is possibly the newest field producing opal. This area produces some incredible Crystal Opal from fossils, specifically from wood or wood replacement fossils. Personally, I love Crystal Opals for their play of color and depth. I hope my approach on how to cut Allawah Nobby’s works out, as I would love to finish with an epic Crystal Opal.

Image courtesy of Bonzol.com 

It’s Showtime

We have a decent-sized white cap and what looks like a nice color bar. I am a little concerned that the cap is too thick and if I grind it all off the color bar may be too thin.
However, it must come off. I can see a sand blob smack bang in the middle when I shine my gemfish flashlight into the rough. The middle is where I aim to keep it and let’s hope it doesn’t appear in the color bar. I will take a little off the back of the rough first to see how it faces. The back color is nice but I believe what is under that cap will be even better.

I’m going in…

The Result

Well, well, well, the color on the front under the cap is most definitely nicer than the back. The inclusions worried me for a while but I managed to eliminate most of them. And that final color after a polish is pretty spectacular if I do say so myself! With vivid green, blue, orange and red radiating through the floral and flagstone patterns.