…When you are at a stop light in real life, and the person in front of you does nothing when it turns green, and you find yourself saying “damn this lag”
…when you find that 90% of the time, you are the oldest avatar in the room.
Thanks to the generosity of a friend of mine who took pity on my situation regarding lack of material I could cut without losing 80% or so of the value in doing so (long story), I present #0098. 11mm x 10mm x 3.5mm and 2.4c in weight, this free form hand cut Cabochon has primarily red color, with some green. Color is visible from 50% or so of the angles, and the area of fire itself covers about 60% of the overall stone. Brightness depends on lighting but overall is okay.
#0096CP: 2.15c, 10mm x 7mm x 4mm. This oval shaped opal has a beautiful mix of darker grey material, mixed with moderately bright red bars of fire. There is some blue that shows up in photographs, however this is not quite as visible unless under brighter light. This will likely end up as a pendant stone, but for now the price for the loose opal is going to be $29, shipping included.
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#0097CP: 1.0c, 8mm x 6mm x 3mm. This freeform is amazing. Bright green fire with a bar of bright red cutting right through it. There is also blue depending on viewing angle and lighting. Colors are visible from almost all angles, and the brightness of the colors is moderately bright. A great opal for a ring or pendant. Price on this will be $54 (shipping included)
Ok, the permissions issues have been resolved, so unless there is another glitch, shouldn’t be a problem.
Pendants are for sale at Olivia’s Secret in Verona, Sparkles Forest faery mall in Fuzzy, and the main Night Stone Jewelry store in Thistledown.
0093CP. 2.55c, 11mm x 9mm x 4mm. Interesting freeform with streaks of color running through it. The original rough was a wedge shape, so couldn’t do much more than this with it.
Colors: just about everything. Visible from many angles, including sides and bottom
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0094CP. 6.15c, 15mm x 11mm x 5mm. This large freeform is a grey base stone with, unfortunately, very little brightness to the color. There is a lot of red with flecks of purple here and there, and they show from many angles, just not very brightly.
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0095CP. 3.70c 15mm x 11mm x 3.5mm. This freeform has backside issues. Rough. however the face on it has some pretty blue/purple colors that show up well from the right angles. also has green in it. It is not polished much past 3000 grit, so shows rough, and will likely find it’s way to the “cheap as potch” category.
Not a bad pair tonight.
0091CP weighs .95c and is 7.5mm x 7.5mm x 3mm. It’s a roughly triangular freeform with green and blue colors, with green being the primary. Green is the most prominent color in this opal, and while the overall brightness of the fire isn’t to bad, there are a couple angles where the green flashes really bright.
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0092CP weighs 2.25c and is 11mm x 8mm x 4mm. this oval opal will make an eye catching pendant. The most noticeable feature of this opal is the diagonal green stripe that goes across the face, which is visible from most angles. Right next to it is a redish orange stripe running parallel to the green one. The rest of the stone has a mix of green and red fire as well.
Tonights opal is an interesting one. 1.40c, 10mm x 7mm x 2.5mm. It’s a hand-cut freeform, but has an overall oval shape. Red, green, blue, you name it, it’s got it, and not to bad as brightness goes. Has color from nearly every angle, however each strip in the opal has some limited angles. This makes for avery interesting play of colors when looked at. Now, for the uneducated:
When cutting opals, the optimal cut is on the same plane as the color bar. Plane being a geometry term for a flat plane defined by a length and width, with a zero height. Color bars are not infinitely thin, in fact, when cutting an opal, it is wonderful if you get a nice thick one to work with. Color bars don’t always follow the rules. They are naturally formed and get pretty convoluted. This particular stone is a slice of opal that was perpendicular to the color bars. It was to thin to cut normally, so I chose to simply work with it as it was. The result is the series of strips of color that go across the stone. 
Well, this one came out interesting. Was a bit of a challenge. Get as much fire as you can, but don’t cut into the big inclusion that you don’t see on the back (if you know what you are looking for you can see it through the fire).
1.70c, 10mm x 7mm x 4mm. On one side we have blazing fire with reds greens and the occasional yellow. On the rest of it we have some lighter blues, maybe a little green.
Well, “Opals by Neurotic” was always a temporary name. I needed a place holder until I found something a little more appropriate. Night Stone Jewelry is what I’ve decided to go with. Has a nice sound to it.
Ok, so where did “night stone” come from.
According to quite a few opal glossaries out there, “night stone” refers to an opal that has such bright fire that it shows even in low light situations. Doesn’t mean they glow in the dark, just means that you don’t need much light to see the colors.
Obviously this term is objective, and from what I can tell doesn’t automatically mean huge value on an opal. You can have super bright fire on an opal, but then at the same time it might only be visible from one small angle.
But, we have the domain name now nightstonejewelry.com so am stuck with it unless there is some major crisis that comes up and demand it be changed.
Yes, I broke down and did it. I made a doublet. As much as I loath anything that isn’t pure, it will expand my inventory because I have a lot of material that is just to thin to cut on it’s own. However I will be sure to be clear when something is a doublet and when it is not.
“Ew! Neural! That looks like crap! what are you thinking?!?”
Well, it’s my first ever. Not like I’m going to take a good piece of material to make something I’ve not worked with before. All the chips and such on the sides are actually not chips, they are just from the way the rough I started with was formed. Note however that the opal bears my signature on it (it’s cracked).
For those who do not know what doublet is:
