This red and green oval opal came as a bit of a surprise.
It was a piece of rough that was curved with a skin on both sides. The edge had a bit of colour play but I knew due to the curve, I wouldn’t really be able to make a solid stone from it. Out came my black agate. After flattening both the rough and the backing, I married them and left to set!
This one took quite a bit of care. It was fairly thin and the surface as well as being convex undulated quite a bit. Grinding little and inspecting often is the key. To start with I believed I’d have a green pinfire flash but as tends to be the case with opals, this changed as the grinding and polishing continued.
The resulting stone has a greeny pinfire. Then, when you turn it, you get a lovely redish glow flowing in form the sides. It’s more like a traditional doublet as the piece of opal is thinner than I tend to use.