This is a 2,10 ct and 8,21 mm faceted Gem Silica from Inspiration Mine, Arizona.
The stone was cut and purchased from Tim aka Inoro here on GO.
A fantastic neon greenishblue stone....
A closer look and you see that it is colorless chalcedone ( I think ) with "millions" of little greenishblue bubbles with a green core - 2-3 larger malachites are visible so the "cores" are malachite too.
Cool! I just saw a similar stone in a ring at a gem show this last weekend--also colorless base with abundant blue spheres. It really looked paraibaesque with that neon glow.
The stone looks pretty good, I have a similar stone but cutting it that way seems to take away from the showing of the material, same with opal, never facet opal, no real advantages-
I agree the cutter did well, but did the cut actually add to the makeup of the material? The light entering the stone dosent really change the color u can see within the stone-with that cut the application for a setting is added to the mix in ur favor-a nice result-
I really can't agree with this at all. Some opals perform spectacularly when faceted, as so some gem silicas.
With much respect, im posting a pic of gem silica i have, faceting these stones would take away from the material, would add nothing to the visuals, more than my opinion-mostly other dealers/sellers at shows or appraisers. The opals ive seen faceted did not show that much better than the cabs shown to me, ive been to many shows & talked with some cutters as well, u just dont see that much cut opal on the market, very little call for it from my findings-
Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:16 am Posts: 239 Location: Germany
@Ruby302 your pics are opaque to translucent material. Here facetting makes less sense, though we also had black spinel facetted which looks quite attractive and interesting. But opal and gemsilica can by translucent to transparent which is very interesting when facetted. I like more the facetted opals, then just cabochons, but this is a personal thing with me, and thank god most of the people think different. Would be a desaster if we all run after the same stones... would be a boring business
I beg to differ Steve, the piece I've pictured may have been a bit boring as a cabochon. It sold long ago, so someone agreed with me. One must take care with the angles as the low RI of opal (and often haze in the fire opals) makes a tendency to window when cut.
Yes - there is beautiful Opal from Welo - our friend Uli Zeisberg cut wonderful faceted custom cut stones as well as fire opal, hyalite and even Contra Luz stones.
We have faceted greenishblue Opal - so called "Andenopal" and the mexican Opal with the strong daylight fluorescence.
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I was wondering how long it took for someone to mention mex fire opal. This is one of the few opals that can be faceted to a strong plus for the stone, my example-
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