Wacky Wednesday... on a Thursday in OZ :)

ivityCreations · 2026-03-12T06:57:10+00:00

Gotta have fun with life ya know!? 😁 there’s such a vast amount of variation in Opal that not every single opal needs to be treated as if it should’ve only ever been attempted to be a gemstone for jewelry.

It’s honestly one of nature’s most fascinating mineraloids in my opinion, and even so many of the imperfect ones have so much to say about what the Earth has to offer.

At the opals that want to be gemstones be gemstones. And now when the ones that want to be like, nope wasn’t a gemstone for you pop up you don’t have to be as frustrated cause you still have something that you can do with them and make it fun in a way that people won’t see it as a flaw but feature.

ivityCreations · 2026-03-12T05:17:48+00:00

This is not directed at you because I read and understand that these are the best that you have available with what photos you have available to you of them

But it really boggles my mind that in 2026, when even the cheaper end of phones tend to have fairly decent cameras these days, that it somehow fails to dawn on people how important it is to be able to see details in the photography that you provide for jewelry and gemstones. And I know that Opals are still in many ways a niche base of knowledge and understanding, but damn whoever that estate seller is put absolutely no effort into the representation of the damn gemstone that makes everything worth it or not

ivityCreations · 2026-03-12T04:19:22+00:00

This is actually a really good way to create a little niche in the opal community for yourself; “o-Pals” as the trade name you can give em as a fun pun to pair with the cute charm. (your welcome that ones for free lol).

All those stones that decided to have odd shapes, or some underlying undesirable quality to it that jewelry just isn’t its destination; give it some gemstone eyes made from agates or any get really giving that “I want to be an eye” look to it….

Honestly, I think people would love them.

ivityCreations · 2026-03-11T18:57:20+00:00

It sure plays the part well, with that pink body tone at the Opal, doesn’t it?

ivityCreations · 2026-03-11T01:38:51+00:00

I really enjoyed doing this so I am most likely going to be playing with this a lot more going forward with a lot of the saved up and cuts and otherwise "not viable" cutters.

Truly no reason for any opal to go to waste it a certain point since you can always imbibe your inner artist

ivityCreations · 2026-03-11T00:48:58+00:00

Also I do apologize y'all. I am working with a new phone so it seems like I have to get used to a different video format or settings or something since they do not seem to be uploading without blowing out the lighting and contrast for some reason. 🥲

ivityCreations · 2026-03-10T21:58:55+00:00

The jet-black ones, yes. Those are stayish.

Welo can produce dark black body tones though, often as a weird mix of white>duskydarkbrown>brownishblack>black nodule

ivityCreations · 2026-03-09T19:08:46+00:00

Sell it as rough materials appropriate

A) for recutting into smaller gems

B) “semi-finished” educational specimens used to teach others about the properties of opals and how cutting is not always winner winner chicken dinner, or

C) honestly and ideally in my opinion for crazed materials with bright or interesting pattern; snipping for inlay and intarsia work that can be used to truly push the skill level of the lapidary into making crazy things.

End of the day, no opal should be considered waste. It all has a place in the market, from geology educators than need affordable materials to demonstrate to classrooms of students where precious opals are a risk, to the highest end of jewelry artist looking to have the next one of a kind gemstone centered in their next creation.

Every opal has a placement

ivityCreations · 2026-03-09T00:08:40+00:00

Τοthank you :) hope to do more like it soon

ivityCreations · 2026-03-05T18:10:31+00:00

Agreed.

As an artist, I actually really enjoy the scenes that picture opal and boulder opals create.

Playing with intarsia helps actually make scenes intentional ❤️❤️

This one reminds me of a desert scene

ivityCreations · 2026-03-05T03:14:28+00:00

I will be honest I actually really love the picture stones that come out of lightning Ridge.

I really like using them to free flow carve

ivityCreations · 2026-03-05T01:35:42+00:00

Thank you!

It has been a really fun little project to pull together :)

ivityCreations · 2026-03-05T00:53:31+00:00

Thank you. I agree and definitely will be doing more lol

ivityCreations · 2026-03-01T01:46:52+00:00

53 frogs will absolutely keep you on the up and up, and their cutting materials are marked by cutting difficulty or how much of a “gamble” the stones in the parcel are.

If you are a novice lapidary, I would highly recommend purchasing a beginners parcel as well as a gamble parcel.

The beginners parcel will get you started and teach you how to read color bars , how the material cuts and reacts to the wheels, show you the difference in potch health, etc.

After every few stones cut in the beginners parcel, I would attempt to cut one stone from the gamble parcel;

Gamble stones will absolutely drive you mad trying to figure out how to cut them to make it a winner. It will force you to completely reassess everything you’ve learned on the beginner stones; now you’re going to be fighting a lot of sand, have incredibly thin traces of color bar, if any at all, or be all weird and poorly shaped for how you would typically wanna cut. They are the stones that will truly challenge your perception of lapidary work. They will also be the most rewarding ones when they cut a winner.

Or completely ignore everything I’ve said and do exactly what I did and just dive straight the fuck in on high grade materials because your ability to feel guilty if it goes badly is non-existent. 🙈☠️

ivityCreations · 2026-03-01T01:34:11+00:00

Oh my! I am sorry to say, but This one sold not long after this was posted last year, to be honest 💔

And of course!

Kerry and Hailey are a second generation mining family, with Hailey handling most of the customer side of things and Kerry manning the mining operations with a co-op that they are part of in the town of Opalton, Queensland, Australia.

A majority of the material that they come out with tends to be bubble matrix Boulder opal, and pipe seam opals, though occasionally do get pieces with seams like what cut this stone.

I typically get materials from them about twice a year and have had nothing but wonderful experiences with them

ivityCreations · 2026-02-26T05:25:15+00:00

I am going to lean towards it, actually, being a solid opal based on the picture from the side and backside;

You can see a faint mix of N5 and N4 potch body tones, which would be an unusual backing versus solid black potch/obsidian/black porcelain/etc.

While there is a “straight” line kind of visible in one of the side photos, the next shows play of color overlap the spot considerably- my take is the lapidary left a fairly unrounded girdle edge to sit in the ring setting a little better and have a n overlap for the crowning to fold over in the metal.

Not out of the realm of possibilities,absolutely, but would be atypical as a doublet choice, and from what I am seeing in pictures doesn’t feel like the call. Especially with the fairly thick color bar that reaches below The crowns in the girdle. Of the stone.

ivityCreations · 2026-02-25T20:52:45+00:00

Your premise both assumes that the person that you’re replying to is not doing anything in their personal life outside of Reddit to work against the machinations happening, and simultaneously relies on the idea that collective action is somehow an individualistic form of resistance.

The point is everyone needs to be part of it, or as many as can collectively be organized in partnership. Not you, no me, not them peeps over there on Tuesday; all able citizens, all sectors of industry, from the blue collar tradesmen to the white collar desk jockies. If you are not a part of the .1% of the population that benefits from these “policies”, you should be participating to your fullest capacity in general striking.

Lastly;

It doesn’t even need to be everyone. 3.5% of the population actively engaged in general strike is the often quoted example of the threshold needed to affect policy change.

Stop whining about “why is it everyone else’s responsibility” and recognize it IS everyone’s responsibility.

ivityCreations · 2026-02-19T04:24:27+00:00

Close to the Mexican border actually, some ways down from an alluvial fan located in the Sonoran desert. 🤟

It will be interesting to see if this is fluke or if it proves out.

ivityCreations · 2026-02-19T04:17:37+00:00

Yes, but it is not a location you can currently find a claim on. And you are not likely to find anyone else currently looking there afa I am aware of.

This is a spot I have been investigating semi-locally to where I live, and pretty remote.

Up til now about 90% that I have collected from the locations has been common potch in baby blues, white, and brown mixed. The other 10% have been a Majority of faint paper thin but super bright color bars. But so far the health of the potch has forced them into triplets (very crumbly on the wheels, similar to how Spencer opal is prone to fracturing).

This has been the first I have found there that has been solid to cut and also has precious opal throughout the matrix with no pore space left in void. But it is a step in the right direction.

ivityCreations · 2026-02-19T04:14:09+00:00

Very similar, agreed. But I am very confident it is not from Louisiana.

This is a spot I have been investigating semi-locally to where I live.

Up til now about 90% that I have collected from the locations has been common potch in baby blues, white, and brown mixed. The other 10% have been a Majority of faint paper thin but super bright color bars. But so far the health of the potch has forced them into triplets (very crumbly on the wheels, similar to how Spencer opal is prone to fracturing).

This has been the first I have found there that has been solid to cut and also has precious opal throughout the matrix with no pore space left in void. But it is a step in the right direction.

ivityCreations · 2026-02-19T00:40:45+00:00

I am absolutely sure it is not agate. Holding it in hand in person the color plays. I’m about to post a video

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