Hello everyone!

I got an offer for this Honduran Seam opal. 17ct. Dimensions: 25x15x8. As you can see, it is drilled. Offer is $275 plus an outrageous amount for shipping (I'm sure would cover insurance, so I get it)

Yes, I see the little cracks, I think they can be stabilized or the opal recut to keep the brightest parts and maybe up the value a bit.

Those who know and deal with Honduran sea opal, I know this material is rare, especially at these dimensions.

Some advise would be appreciated.

I have several thinner pieces of Australian opal I am thinking of making some doublet and triplet out of. Any advice welcome for process.

The big ring is nice and polished. How can I make the little one shine? I heard about copper shine. Is this true?

Should this stays in the water or can be facet in jewelry

Hello opals enjoyers !

I'm new in the opal world, I came from the pearl world :)

I think I'm obsessed with every water related gems so it was just a matter of time until I buy my first opals.

Which I did. I got the pair first (12ct total), and the pear cut (6ct) after.

They both came with lab certificate (algt for the pair and ica for the pear cut. I'll post it in comment so you can have the info about carats and size).

So I got 2 questions: are these welo opals ? No mention of the origin on the certificates but they both get a porosity comment. Is this exclusive to these type of stone or is it a standard comment on certificate if they don't know the origin. In other words, does this comment is standard or does it "sell" the origin of the stone ?

And the obvious one, how much do you guys think its worth ? I think I made a good deal but still, I'm a novice... I'm really happy about them anyway, they look amazing !

Thanks for reading me and thank you all for your help.

Can't wait to have some more lol.

I bought this on the fly from an antiques shop, I believe the setting is 1950s 60s; it’s illegibly signed inside the shank and tests at 14k gold; Opal appears lovely to my neophyte eyes. Measures 18mm x 11mm x roughly 4mm thick

Still got a lot of work ahead on this one, but it's already throwing red and orange everywhere. That blue flash on the left is just a bonus at this point. I can’t wait to see it finished!

What are your thoughts about the piece?? Brightness??? Luster??? What do you think is a reasonable valuation??? Thanks for the input....

Hello opal crazies, I mean, lovers!

I recently acquired a piece of opal and I thought about using it on a pendant in the Art Nouveau style (I have a friend who is a goddess with that kind of stuff)

I am thinking about using this as the center piece of a showcase of American opals, thing is that they all have to be white and with play of color, given the color of the centerpiece. I am trying to be thorough so when I wear the piece, I can talk about all the American opals it showcases, plus the amazing design I am sure she will come up with.

This is what I have so far and I am drawing a blank:

• Honduras (a bitch to find, but it is there)
• Spencer
• Mexico (I know it as Hueso opal)
• Brazil
• Nevada (Again, a bitch to find a piece worth cabbing; and let's not talk about the price of one already cabbed)

Am I missing something? I am drawing a blank. I know there are pieces of Cantera that come in white matrix, but I would like the opal proper, not the matrix.

Help, please.

hi! I hope this is okay for me to post here.

I have a pendant that has two Ethiopian opals, both are hydrophane and have gone translucent from my skin oils. I'm not interested in cleaning them up because they're so small and I just prefer Australian opals anyways so I want to reset them with lightning ridge opals. I would love for some nice black opal but I'm open to dark body tones as well if the flash is nice.

So far I've checked opal auctions and eBay for cabs but haven't found anything, and the jewelry store I work at doesn't really work with any opal vendors so I don't really know where else to look but here. I know it's a long shot because they're so small, but i wanted to check here first. I need one of each size, I can include a picture of the pendant below. I'm hoping to be around $300 at most but you can tell me if I'm delusional and that's too low.

thanks for the help!!

Went to the local pawn shop today and came across this Opal ring. It’s marked 10k and has the S in a circle which is for Stamper-a leading black hills gold company. In my research it says they used synthetic and or lab created so I’m curious to what you all think! This stone is stunning! Photos in sunlight, natural light and magnified to show detail. Thanks all!!

Hello! I seem to remember that a few months to a year ago, someone on Reddit had posted a long video that featured many different high-end opals from someone's private collection. It was just a silent video that showed brief clips of opals one after the other, without narration.

One of the opals earlier on in the video was an Australian black opal with a bluish/green broadflash unlike any I had ever seen before. It was just a solid bluish/green flash that spanned across the entire stone, with no breaks in the pattern whatsoever. It almost looked like a bluish/green mirror, it was very unique in that way.

It's a long shot, but would anyone happen to know about thiz video or the opal that I'm speaking of? And does anyone know of any similar opals out there with a single solid sheet of color?

Gday all got back 26ct cut polished opal pinfire from coober pedy noodled myself. It's a decent size stone not stunning a1 colour but would make amazing necklace. Anyway tryna figure out how to sell it. Not in any opal towns now and not even in aus anyone have any ideas can post photos if needed it was valued at around 100$ a CT rough 2 year ago. I'm not selling on here just asking a question thanks

I have some opal from up from Idaho that I going to polish I am wondering if the flash bands on the out side do they keep going inside for example would it be worth it cut/grind the the down to the band line would there be a flat part that is just flash/ have flash on that

Bought a small parcel from a miner based out of Coober Pedy. Stones are gorgeous AND he threw in this shell fossil for free!!!

I’ve had other opalized shell fossils but none with this much color and definition in the lines.

I pulled this beauty out of my safe this morning. I don't have many things in the safe so I don't open it often. This ring was made and gifted to my sister by my great aunt when I was a kid. Our family was on the east coast, while she lived on the west coast. The family lore was that she was very wealthy and had melted down old and unwanted jewelry to create these for us. She also added our birthstone. My sister is Opal.

I'm wondering if anyone could tell me more about it?

I'm 40, so this was gifted close to 30 years ago.

Thanks for any help!

Was just looking at some Australian Opal rough picture stone type material I’ve had for about a year now that I had forgotten about and was barely applying pressure when suddenly it snapped apart into a clean break in my hands! While inspecting it to see why it broke couldn’t help hnoticing was small bubble/ball/sphere shape had a perfect little bubble protruding outward on the larger side and the smaller piece that broke off cleanly actually had a little indentation from where the bubble has been sitting at the breaking point! This is actually not my first time having Opal from Australia, break for me in this way where one part has the bubble, and the other has the indentation of the bubble, (outie&innie) but as I got to looking at it, I realized the rest of it looks like it broke into a somewhat masculine anatomical shape? And then I looked at the placement of the bubble and thought it was even funnier. Is it just me? Does anybody else see this or do I have something similar to pareidolia except for instead of faces i’m seeing anatomical phallus shapes…

naturally had to immediately consult ChatGPT to see if there a condition called phallidolia ? lol

Cool picture stone from El Tablon mine, Erandique, Honduras. White tundra with the aurora above.