Luxury Natural Australian Opal Handcrafted Jewellery
Elucere Blog, 26th January 2021 - The Birth of an Opal
For the first Elucere blog I thought it would be best to start at the very beginning of the opal jewellery making process - The birth of an opal gem from the rough opal rock from an Australian Mine, one of the most fascinating, exciting, mesmerising and sometimes frustrating pursuits to uncover each of mother nature’s masterpieces of opal to their optimum sparkle .
It can be a whole mixture of emotions when cutting and polishing opal, as exciting as it is nail-biting or more aptly put - nail-grinding on the polishing wheel lol. It is a great privilege to work with precious opal and be able to be the first to witness their majestic beauty as the colour and sparkle that has been hidden underground for millennia encased in rock is uncovered before our very eyes. With the privilege comes great responsibility to uncover the beauty and shape of each opal sympathetically to showcase mother nature’s beauty at its best, in order to make a top quality gem for a timeless luxury piece of jewellery. It is definitely a job that is spellbinding and never boring
The first step when we get the rough is to visually examine it for;
- bands of colour; where are they, how thick, what way up are they the brightest
- are there any inclusions or sand spots that we can see in the rough
The opal in the picture is an Australian white opal from Coober Pedy, which is showing a spectrum of colours on ¾ of the sides of the rough rock. To help us with the examination we cut around the sides slightly with the wet 180 diamond grit lapidary wheel. We hope (and pray) for a thick band of visible vibrant colours and no large sand deposits. Sand is common in opal rough from Australia as it is made from silica mined from an ancient sea bed. It is incredible to think that some of the Australian, very dry and hot desert, outback used to be a sea.....mind blowing stuff! While lots of sand can make a great holiday it can be soul destroying in opal lapidary. It is definitely our nemesis when sand appears out of nowhere and then covers the spectrum of colours we were polishing, which disappear into dust as quickly and disappointingly as an an actual rainbow.
Top tip: A gem torch can be shone onto the opal rough to identify any large sand pockets to help avoid such disappointment.
Once it has been decided on what shape and way the opal is going to be faced to show its colours to their maximum brightness, the opal is cut down to its optimum shape and to the colour bar, with first a wet 180 diamond grit wheel then a 320 wheel. The higher the diamond grit number the less harsh the wheel is on the opal and the less it will take off with each stroke.
Top tip: always keep the opal wet and moving on the wheels to avoid it becoming overheated, which would cause it to crack.
To avoid rubbing off too much colour once the colour bar of the opal has been uncovered we switch to the wet 600 diamond grit wheel to start the polishing phase of the opal, which we have superglued to a wooden stick referred to as a dop stick in the lapidary world. We then move to the 1200 grit wheel to polish all the cutting scratches from the harsher wheels off the opal face. Moving the opal continuously in different directions to polish off the scratches and avoid making them deeper.
After the scratches are superficial we move to the final polishing stage on the felt wheel, which we paint with water and cerium oxide, to give a super shiny polish on the opal cabochon gem.
This stage is really exciting as all the hard work is rewarded with the true beauty of the gem shining proudly at us with all of its captivating colours and patterns from the various different angles, a truly spellbinding moment in each opal gems birth.
I hope you have enjoyed this blog, if you have any questions or comments on the above or would like to learn about the processes in more detail please contact me by email – Lucinda@elucere.co.uk
Please keep your eyes peeled for future blogs, which will continue the jewellery making process for this opal but if you cannot wait please check out the Elucere_Opal_Jewellery Instagram feed for the highlight pictures of its journey.
Best wishes & sparkles,
Lucinda
Elucere Owner
Chief Jewelley Designer
Natural Opal Fanatic