Hey folks! Haven't blogged for a long time now it seems, but I've got some help now in the studio with my photography and eBay listing so I'm getting lots more cut and will hopefully have more time to share images of my work and my thoughts on gems and stones.
This is my current favorite new stone! I call it my "Goddess Opal".
I hand cut and polished this piece out of a rare and unusual piece of rough. It is a conglomerate, or cluster, of little pieces of genuine Lightning Ridge Black Opal still in the soft, sandy matrix in which it is found in the mines in Australia. I got this ONE chunk of rough and rather than cut it up into a half dozen very small cabs I decided to work with it as is, including the matrix as a part of the pendant, and I am thrilled with the result! This piece feels very "Goddess/ss'ssssyyyyy" to me and has since I started cutting it. It feels electric and organic, watery and hard, like it could be found at the bottom of the sea or in the desert at the end of a lightning bolt.... I wore this to Faerie Coffee here in Portland, Oregon today and someone said "Holy Cow! What's THAT! It looks like an electric Venus of Willendorf.
The total weight on this piece is 218 cts, including the matrix. There are 8 protrusions of solid opal that shows beautiful, electric purple color and fire. There are 3 more protusions of solid opal that are also lovely but don't show any fire, just clear or cloudy opal. The entire piece measures 60x36x26mm and there is a 3mm drill hole through the matrix. I hand sanded all the opal surfaces. To help strengthen the matrix I applied a thin layer of a cyanoacrylate stabilizing agent which just barely soaked into the soft matrix and allowed me to put a minor polish on the rock like muddy matrix that these opals occur in. The whole piece was tumbled for a few hours in a gentle tumbler with a 600 grit abrasive to both strength test it and to put a soft organic, uniform feel to the whole shape after my initial sanding of the black opal surfaces. I then hand polished all the opal surfaces and put a buff polish on the surface of the matrix.
This amazing stone looks like some wierd combination of jelly fish and fungus with a purple bioluminscent glow. It evokes a flowery form and has been stopping people in their tracks when I wear it! Here's another view of the same stone....
Here's another stone that is also an opal, and also from Australia, and also makes me think "Goddess" but it couldn't be more different! 
I hand cut and polished this piece out of a rare and unusual piece of rough. It is from a stone nodule called a Yowah Nut, which is a concretion of opal and ironstone in matrix. Found in the mines of Queensland, Australia. I got this ONE chunk of rough and I wasn't too impressed because I could tell that the opal in this piece was just transparent honey colored, with no fire or play of color. I liked the patterns though and decided to cut it into an amulet. It wasn't until I was doing the final polishing on it that I saw the FIGURE coming out of the cave in the center of the stone!!!! This piece feels very "God/dess/ss'ssssyyyyy" to me and has since I started cutting it. I don't know if it's Mary, Guadalupe, Jesus, or some prophet coming out of that dark brown cave surrounded by honey colored opal, but it has blown my mind and surprised everyone I've shown it to! I see a cloaked figure, hands folded, with a tiny little cross above their head. It also looks like the figure is emanating from the small dark brown pillar at the base, almost like a Genie from a bottle. What do you see? How does this stone speak to you?
The total weight on this piece is 130 cts. The entire piece measures 53x40x8mm and there is a 4mm drill hole through the matrix on the top of the face. I hand polished all the opal surfaces and put a buff polish on the surface of the matrix which were too soft to take a high polish. Here's another image of the cloaked figure emerging from the cave, with a little more detail....
That's it for now! I'm cutting lots more stuff in all different kinds of materials, so I hope folks will check out my work!
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