CosmicOpals
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The bench · 3 min read
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When the stone tells you the shape

With a cab, the cutter decides the shape. With a carving, the color bar gets a vote.

A small carved Ethiopian crystal opal turtle resting on chunks of white quartz — green and red fire runs through the body of the carving.

Most cabs come off the bench because the cutter decided what shape to cut. Carvings work differently: the stone gets more of the vote.

You can't facet an opal the way you'd facet a sapphire. The color lives in a layer, and straight facets cut through that layer and scatter the play-of-color rather than directing it. A cabochon domes smoothly over the color bar and points the fire toward a viewer. But the color bar isn't always flat — and that's where carving opens up.

Following the color

The turtle in this photo started as a rough Ethiopian chunk with a color zone that ran diagonally through the piece — not flat enough to cab cleanly without losing most of the fire. We could have cut around the color and lost it, or built a form that followed where the fire actually was. The shape came from the stone.

Diamond burs at multiple grits, water-cooled throughout. Opal heats up fast and can crack if you push the speed — you spend more time watching than cutting. The green and red fire running through the body of the carving isn't placed there. That's where it was in the rough.

A carved Australian opal fish in the cutter's fingers — blue and teal play-of-color fires through the detailed scale work.
Another carving off the bench — Australian material this time, dark body tone with electric blue fire.

Every carved opal is a one-of-a-kind, same as every cab. But carvings make that impossible to argue with.