Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained is pretty much the motto of any opal cutter. The risk can become somewhat calculated over time, but you never really know what is happening inside that piece of rou...
From little things, big things grow. This is such a great way to describe the journey of an opal. It begins with the hopes and dreams of the miner — the time and effort spent searching for somethin...
Petite & Perfect, is a synergy that works well in the opal jewelry world. We love all types of opal — shapes, sizes, colors and patterns, flaws and all! And contrary to the belief, bigger isn’t...
When faced with a whopping 137ct nobby opal, my eyes pour over the rough gem to visualize the multitude of possible outcomes.Where does the best color seem to be sitting?Is there a better pattern u...
Win, Lose or Draw — Welcome to the World of Opal! Even after decades of buying and cutting opal, I can still get it really wrong. But that is the risk you take when you work with Opal. The highs an...
Opal Nobby number 1 has the potential to cut a nice gem. It shows that rare red-blue color across the nobby, however, the sand is going to be an issue. SPOILER ALERT: If this one cuts well, there m...
Here we are, nobby opal number 5 or ‘broken nobby’ as we have nicknamed it! What we already know about nobby number 5. It is a broken-off piece, so we can clearly see the color bar inside. We can ...
The number 2 nobby was Justin’s pick of the entire bunch. There is great hope for this particular nobby, it has an exceptionally thick color bar compared to most. To take advantage of how thick thi...
Nobby Opal number 3 from our ‘Pick a Winner’ competition came in at a very close second to number 4. A mixed up looking nobby but it showed a lot of potential. From experience, these types of rough...