A week ago I posted a photo of a rough yellow fire opal from Madagascar. Been having trouble cutting such a stone mainly because I was not used to how soft Opal is. However rather than give up I decided to press on. Realising some of my early mistakes, this time I avoided doing what I did in previous attempts which was chipping the stone. I decided to use a design that I have used before with a few modifications on some of the angles. This way I was eliminating any other possible issues down the track. So the stone seen in the photos weighed in at 4 carats and came out quite transparent compared to many other fire opals I've seen before. I took special care to cut away as much imperfection out of the rough before faceting. Personally, there is nothing worse than seeing obvious veils and inclusions in a faceted stone. And you can be almost guaranteed that many stones coming out of India, China and Thailand sold online will have these issues. Sometimes it can not be avoided as rough material does not always reveal it's inner contents. But many overseas cutters working for gut bucket wages aren't that fussy. Anyway, below are the photo's of the gem in the rough to the a finished product. I set that stone myself in a solid 925 sterling silver pendent.
The is opal known as Fire opal. There is a type of Opal call "FIRE OPAL" various types come from Mexico which is red. Others are yellow - ie Madagascar. Australia also has a Fire Opal and it is a reddish colour. There is also a green opal called Hyalite Opal and it's fluorescent. This Opal is amazing as it's radioactive.