u/ivityCreations

Gotta finish polishing them but they’re definitely coming out Looking good so far. 🥰

At least it told me how it really felt though

Got this lovely pair of koroit cut from the same chunk of rough split in half ♥️ beautiful tribal pattern and lovely green and blue play of color peeking through 🫶

Got a few blemishes to work out but omg the color on this opal….

Finally getting some time to video some of the sets 🥰

Honestly, on that mad dash for the finish gotta finish the stones and then solder the settings and most likely I won’t be sharing it for a week or two. I’m here just cause I want him to actually be able to appreciate it without seeing it online everywhere in my socials lol. . I know Pops won’t care if it’s a day or too late, but I really wanna give them to him tomorrow.

Don’t mind my random music background xD enjoy the wonderful patterns and colors Koroit can produce though. And those play of color gem portions are succulent 🫶🏻😊

Okay I wanted some flashy color on my wheels rather than mud for a change. Cutting a nice lil shell patch gem with amazing color play 🫶🏻

Gotta love that back end. Might end up bringing down the dome to get some of the opal play to peek through the dome too. But also gunna done off the back and kind of double side this chunky koroit 🫶🏻

Had some nice cube sections that were not quite right for dice so I turned them into a little towers.

Couple of nice little Jimmy spots too on the wine and bits of color poking out here and there on each of them

Fun use for pieces I’m not doing jewelry or dice with

Might see if the Warhammer crowd might like to use as totems 👀

Enjoying splitting up these koroit chunks. Gunna get a mix of dice and jewelry cuts from this chunk showing signs of being fully patterned throughout many segments of the specimen

My workspace is starting to get insanely packed again though. Need to start running all the prep I’ve done last few days through the final stages and polish em up.

Likely will post some koroit towers and dice later today 🫶🏻

Always a fun evening picking out the cuts you are planning for the week 🤗❤️

Okay, I had to find an ancient post of mine from back in 2018/2019 when I was still in my early days of opal learning, because this is the one that got away from me in the worst ways you can imagine for an opal enthusiast that has been setting opals in jewelry for 12 years and cutting them professionally for the last 7.

I set this into the engagement ring that I proposed to my ex with. (No pictures of that sorry deleted alllllllll photos and videos with and relating to that relationship some time ago to purge and heal. Thus me having to dive deep on my fb to find a video of this opal and only found it on a page I couldn’t delete the post from due to page permissions. Actually kind of lucky that. )🥲💔 and not long after she became extremely manipulative and started stepping outside our relationship boundaries with the people she was hanging around. Yall catch what I mean.

But man.

8.2ct loupe clean faceted Mexican Fire with blue/purple/green/gold color play across the crown and window.

Literally. Something you come across under only stupid lucky circumstances.

It was gifted to me by one of my earliest supporters who has a hobby (that I picked up from him lol) of perusing estate sales for gemstones. He came across this and a lot of other extraordinary gemstones when a particularly well known local geologist passed away in 2017/2018 in the PNW of the United States, and his family put the collection they could not maintain without his experience/knowledge up in the estate sale. His only request was to set it into something for myself because he had seen me make something like 200 pendants for a charity event in Seattle where all profits were donated to breast cancer research. But man I cannot express how much I hate and I regret not listening to that one simple request.

In ways I had thought the engagement ring was for myself, an investment into the future I wanted to share with that person. I thought I’d see it on their hand each day proud asf I put it there. Life had other plans for me though and I deserved someone who respected me and our relationship. So, cut loose and left the caboose.

But I really do wish I had made myself something personal with it. Because it will be another many years before I ever come across another quite like it.

I’m sharing this because I saw that beautiful Contreras piece with color play come across my feed, in the well patinad silver ring, and it reminded me of this amazing gem that got away 🥲💔

Learn through my lived experience on this one folks. ❤️please lol. Certain stones really do just deserve to stay with you, and you deserve to hold on to the ones that call out. I wish I had, so don’t be me. 🫶🏻

Apologies to yall, I really did want to create some meetups on the road and meet some of the wonderful folks in this beautiful space!

Unfortunately the demands of the road and the state of health that the people I was assisting created a lot more stress on the road than I anticipated. Unfortunately they would not have had the ability to leave the RV without extreme assistance, so I had to just drive through. By the time I I started heading home to Phoenix I was days behind schedule so could not make any stops unfortunately 😓

I will be doing a proper cross country roadtrip early 2027 though, one meant to actually be travel and pleasure rather than an emergency move. I’ll post in January to start setting up meeting places along the western states, and possibly a good portion of the Midwest. Thinking of doing a 1-2 month trip with my personal truck and camper after Tuscon

Alas. Enjoy the photos I took from using my phones as dash cams and recording a lot of the travel. More photos will be uploaded to the comments. Trying to make some lemonade from the bag of lemons the last couple weeks left me with.

I will be traveling to Salem Oregon tonight (already hit Reno NV), and will be stopping for some hours if any members of the group would like to meet and have someone help them ID some of there personal collection, talk opals in a general sense, or just give the opals group a good old members meet post ❤️

Unfortunately time is limited on this trip, but I am not going to let the small chance pass by.

After tonight we will be heading to White Clouds in Michigan. We may find a rest stop along the way and will keep the community updated. I wish time wasn’t so limited but There is a reason for it.

Truth is this is not a pleasure trip. My mentor, the person who has believed in my capacity to grow, and who has given me untold troves of wisdom over the years, is needing an emergency move due to their landlord crossing over a line from “typical slumlord” to “this man is actively engaging in elder abuse and my friends wellbeing due to medical needs is greatly at risk” territory. Any meeting in Salem will be after I have had the opportunity to get her and her husband out of where they are. They will also be with me, as a foreword. And as the meeting will be during a break in my drive, I will ask to limit the meets to an hour, wherever they may happen.

However, it is a rare opportunity that I can drive across several states and make several stops. I truly look forward to an opportunity to meet with members of the community and commiserating over a shared passion.

Please let me know if you want to meet, and where along the posted route you may reside ❤️

Past couple of weeks have been insanely busy. Three shops stocked up locally here in Phoenix now. Working on trying to get into a game's workshop location which would be an incredible boon.

Outside of that these are going to be the first ones not going straight to stores. Maybe some personal math rocks? :3 One full ttrpg set is being made for the supplier, Dominick. Not sure where the rest will be going yet but they will find their homes I am sure.

I will post videos later of the a couple of the sets! It really is a fun day to cut Opals so looking forward to some fun results by the end of the day

Just this beautiful koroit nut with a nice little gem in it. This will likely cut a beautiful pair of matching pendants for me ♥️😁🫶

Hello yall! Long time lurker and appreciator of you lava breathing badasses!

I am a gemstone lapidary, working in the opal sector of the gemstone industry. I am also an elder millennial engineering student with a long life that has promoted learning crafting and fabrication skills, school is largely backtracking to collect certification credentials and learn some of the extremely nuanced stuff my life hasn’t already taught me already.

I am developing a new piece of lapidary equipment aimed at reducing the cost of entry to the hobbyist/amateur level of skill/engagement in the craft; basically someone who needs equipment that will work, but isn’t necessarily overly concerned about return on investment. I fully know my method of manufacturing the tool will not allow for the same levels of precision and accuracy a well maintained traditional faceting machine will achieve, nor am I trying to. The goal is giving people an option to explore a craft that is otherwise cost prohibitive to enter (I am sure you all can relate to this, I am not naive of the cost of glassblowing lamp work equipment, if anything yall got it worse than we do tbh), while also maintaining an acceptable level of precision and accuracy to not fail entirely in producing results that are at least on par with foreign low labor cost cutting farms; not perfect but perfectly passable for an enthusiast.

I realized in a “oh duh” moment, that there are several glassblowers who utilize very similar equipment to lapidary equipment, sometimes even being an actual lapidary equipment piece like that diamonds flat laps, and using them to basically do big version of what we do just with glass instead of rubies and sapphires and diamonds.

So, I thought I would poke on over here and give yall a peak at the prototype I’m working on and see how your industry feels on if it might be worth exploring its usage in glasswork.

Thank you for your time and responses❤️ I am now ready to be laughed out the room ☠️

Already putting those degrees to work 😤

This is how I will be cutting the koroit dice for the more complex shapes: d20/12/10/8/4

Y'all I am excited about what it could ALSO do for the faceting side of lapidary: a space sorely in need of entry level equipment that is affordable but also WORKS.

Testing phases begin today with the first sets of dice 😁♥️

At the moment it is mostly going through a proof of theory phase; will it hold any tolerance, can it achieve any level of precision. Then there will be testing on its ruggedness and ability to maintain its baseline. But I thought this would be a fun opportunity to give people a sneak peak into why I have had lapidary work itself on the back burner while pursuing and engineering degree! Planning to really answer some of the industry aches, like viability of AFFORDABLE entry level equipment that is not just a moneypit or poorly crafted chinesium. Part of that degree is understanding material science, so please please please do not approach this post in a way that suggests you believe I have not considered the pros and cons of the method of manufacturing that I am using. I typically keep to the r/Opals community as my personal specialty is opals and other difficult to properly cut materials like fire obsidian, fire agate, and so forth. But I wanted to share this with the broader lapidary community as well!

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day everyone!

I just turned in my last final for this school.

On Friday, I walk for my first two degrees.

I am graduating with high honors. A representative of our Associated Student Government. A member of Phi Theta Kappa honors society. A military veteran turned academic.

My opal paper was an absolute pleasure to bring to the academic world and opal communities.

The work I am doing to improve our local interest in the physical sciences like geology and mineralogy is being seen and recognized.

And I have finally stepped into a professional space for my lapidary work, one that is my own and run my way.

I just feel this sense of emptiness right now. Perhaps burnout from the sheer amount of time and energy I have been putting into other things. Perhaps a bit of sadness knowing this place I have spent the last several years investing my time and energy in is coming to a close for me.

I know there are many exciting possibilities ahead of me. That there are doors opening up that I would have never dreamed of before, and yet I just wish there was more time to enjoy these moments. These fleeting moments that pass you by in the blip of an eye.

So I am trying to take in what all this means for me right now, and the truth is, I don’t really know yet.

What I do know though, is that I need to be proud of this milestone, even if it feels overwhelming to say goodbye to so many people that have so positively impacted my life.

Celebrate with me, the closing of this monumental chapter of my life.

And for myself, and any others stepping into that next journey in life; Here is to the next chapter, my friends.