So, I know what your saying to yourself. What the heck happened to Days 5,6, & 7? Well, the internet connection wasn’t so great those days, unfortunately. So, I will try to recall to the best of my ability what happened in those days.
Day 5
This day was the day I finished an opal all by myself, including the shape. I finished several opals over the course of the day, with Sarah only helping with advice and shaping on a particularly tough teardrop shape and getting an oval shape a bit tighter. I felt so accomplished and proud of myself. The opal I finished by myself was a very deep Pink Peruvian Opal with dendritic formations. It turned out to be a rhombus shaped stone. I thought it was very pretty. I also finished a very large oval Green Peruvian Opal, which I think will make a great pendant stone. The other stone I finished was a White Mexican Opal in a free-form teardrop shape. It turned out very pretty. It has some flash under the light. It was a very good day. It was also our last full opal cutting day.
Day 6
Saturday was our last class. It was a bittersweet day for me. To think that only one week ago, I did not even know how to cab a stone, much less cut an opal, and there I was finishing my sixteenth opal. (It ended up being a round red Mexican Opal.) I even ventured a non opal by cabbing a small piece of fossilized dinosaur bone. The larger piece broke apart, but the smaller piece I salvaged cabbed just fine. My whole aim there was to see if I could cab any stone myself, and before the larger piece broke, it was looking pretty nice. (It broke because I hadn’t stabilized it.) Unfortunately, we had to have the classroom cleaned and presentable before lunch began.
After lunch, we proceeded to evaluations. No, not teacher evaluations, Opal Evaluations. We learned how to properly value opals. Each of us took our Precious Opal and went through steps to properly make an estimated trade value on our opals. Needless to say, many of us were pleased with the results, especially those who had brought their own rough to cut. The two I was able to value were decent. They were from the kit so they weren’t the true high-end rough, but at least they had value. Unfortunately, the procedures used are copyrighted.
At the end of the day, we all said our class goodbyes, but we still had “Show & Tell” that night. We were able to display our work, along with other students from different classes, along several tables. Each class had a spokesperson talking about the instructor and the class experience as a whole.
Everyone had a positive experience, and the work I saw just made me want to take every class available, not only for the fun, but so I can expand on my jewelry making skills.
I thuroughly enjoyed my experience at Wildacres, and I hope to continue to attend classes there and other jewelry workshops.
Day 7
This was the last day of the workshop. It was basically filled with packing, breakfast, checkout, and final goodbyes. My friends and I packed up and began our journey home. Along the way, we stopped and several little shops and a mineral museum along the Blue Ridge Parkway. While at the museum, I saw these copper nuggets, and I saw that there were holes perfect for stringing chain or wire through. With all the inspiration I’ve received from this trip, I’ve decided to incorporate them in a new piece I will dedicate to my first trip to Wildacres.
It is good to be home.
Today was supposed to be a half for students, but many in my class opted to continue working, me included. Well, let’s face it, I needed all the time in that class I could get. I am happy to say I was able to salvage my first precious opal with the help of my instructor, Sarah. In fact, all of my opals have been saved with her help.
I also finished by doublet and triplet. The triplet came out pretty decent with a nice dome finish and some good red flashes, but the doublet was another story entirely. It had several rough spots that gave me trouble. I was finally able to grind them down, but there wasn’t much color to the opal other than some soupy green.
With the almost finishing of my precious opal (I may need to bevel the back still, I can’t remember.), I was finished with the opals from my student kit. So, what to do. Well, I decided I would buy some rough, because unlike most of my class, I did not bring any opal rough from home. Then again, I didn’t have any opal rough to bring with me.
I began looking through several pieces of nice dark, Pink Peruvian Opal with dendritic patterns and some beautiful pieces of green Peruvian Opal. I also looked through some crystal Mexican Opal. I found several pieces from each that I liked, but other than the Green Peruvian, I haven’t quite decided which ones I want to try cutting. I also began looking through a jar of Precious Opal (opal with flashes of color). That’s when Sarah was kind enough to give me another piece of the Precious Opal to try again since my first one didn’t come out so great. She helped me through each step, and what came out was a very nice oval cab with some nice flashes of color.
At the end of this day, I was very pleased with my work, and yet, I still felt as if I had let myself down somehow by not completing an opal by myself. I know I shouldn’t feel down about not knowing how to properly cab a stone when I’ve never done so in my life, but a learning process is a learning process. And, needing to learn how to make mistakes is just as important as trying not to. So, I shall be back in class tomorrow, bright and early to try to cut an opal on my own.
Well, today was both a good day and a bad day. Let me tell you about the good part of the day. I learned how to make a doublet and a triplet opal, although my class has not begun the cutting part. We just know the choosing and the epoxying part. I also finished several opals today, but hear is where the bad part comes into play.
First of all, you must understand something about me. I am a bit of a perfectionist. I tend to try to do certain things as perfect as I can, and if I can’t, I kick myself repeatedly in the proverbial behind. So much so, that it leaches into other aspects of my work. Well, I am a bit frustrated with the business end of jewelry at this moment. And, I see this as a reflection on my pieces and my abilities. (It is amazing what one small, unthinking comment, albeit not said in a malicious manner, can do to you.) These negative feelings leached into the cut stones I was working on in the afternoon thus they ended up not being well formed at all, at least not to me. I began to look at every little mistake and mishap as some type of failure on my part. (Yes, even though it is my first time cabbing.) I couldn’t make the stone do what I wanted the way I had done yesterday.
My instructor, Sarah, graciously salvaged my work and helped me to finish the stones, most of which came out semi-decent. However, this second half of the day did not help my confidence any at all. All I can hope for is a better day tomorrow with my triplet and doublet stone. Perhaps, I may even be able to pick out an extra stone, because despite the mishaps of today, I really do enjoy working with stones. It’s as much fun as making jewelry.
Day 2 at WildAcres was even more interesting than the 1/2 day that was yesterday. Today, I cut my first opal. It was an Australian Fern Opal with Dendrites. It has a mustard yellow color with black branches stretching out in everywhich way like tree branches. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, it cracked at the tip and had to be rebuffed to remove the chipped edge. (This was my fault because I forgot to move the water spitter to the lap wheel I was using so it was dry. Hey, it was my first time ever cabbing a stone. Give me a break. I am allowed one mistake, right.) I ended up with a smaller stone, but Sarah, my instructor, said it looked very nice. Its shape ended up being sort of a modified pear.
Sarah began the class by using my Fern Opal to demonstrate to the class the steps to cutting the opal into a nice cab. She chose me, because I was the only person in the class who had never cabbed any type of stone before. Once I got my hands on the stone and used to the cabbing machine, which was a Genie (for those who cab or wanted to know), I began cabbing fairly easily. Sarah is an excellent teacher and has her own technique of cabbing that can be used not only on opals, but other material as well.
Well, I finished up the Fern Opal, and I began working on my second ever opal, which was a Pink Peruvian Opal. It turned out very pretty with some nice banding across the center. It sort of looks like a Picasso head. (In case you haven’t realized, these are freeform cabs. I might try my hand at a calibrated cab with some other pieces.)
My next piece was a Spencer Opal from Idaho. It was fairly large since it was cut right there in the classroom. I first cut the girdle to get the light in it and to decide on which side would be my top and which would be my bottom. Once I got that done, I set to work shaping the top, blending, and buffing until I got the mirror finish I wanted to get. Unfortunately, this was about the time where my dop or holder (i.e. a nail) kept falling off (twice). Sarah had to glue on a different nail with extra glue around it to keep that sucker from falling off. Well, after that adventure, I was able to get that piece done and polished. Alas, one side was too rough since Spencer opal is found within a matrix, usually of a material called Rhyolite, which is quite a beautiful stone in itself. Sarah had to help me out with that since she understood where to buff it without messing up my nice diamond finish. (Literally, it is diamond since getting that nice sheen is due to using diamond laps or wheels of varying grits. Very cool, neh.).
The Spencer was to be my last opal for the day. I did start the girdle on my Mexican Opal, but since it has such nice crystal formations on both sides, I have been steered toward making it a double cab. Yay, I get to do something else I’ve never done before.
So, I’m off to figure out how exactly one makes a double cab, which I will attempt tomorrow, along with a triplet, a doublet, a “bacon” opal, and a precious opal. Then the real fun begins when I get to choose which opals I would like to cab.
That’s right. I am going Wild… Acres that is. At this moment, I am writing about my first class in Opal Cutting at the Wild Acres Retreat near Spruce Pine, North Carolina. I am about 3300 ft above sea level among picturesque mountains and dangerous falling acorns. (Ouch… oh, it was only my head.)
Well, it wasn’t my first class. My first official class begins tomorrow, bright and early. My teacher’s name is Sarah Lee Boyce. She’s been teaching Opal Cutting for a long time now, and she teaches mostly here and at a school called William Holland in Georgia. Let me tell you, she’s a straight-shooter type of person, but also very, very sweet. (I know this because of how nice she is being to a little, old beginner like me.)
Basically, what she did tonight was go over the outline of the class. We will be learning how to handle our opal cutting/cabbing machines; learn to “read” opals of all kinds; cut the opal so as to not lose much rough; repair any mistakes if need be; and finally grade and price opals.
So, I bet you are really wanting to know, “Why Opal Cutting?”. Well, for this session, it was my first choice. I like opals of all kinds, and I thought it would be cool to learn how they were cut. Maybe, even cut some decent ones to make pendants for my jewelry a la Hooks & Toggles Exclusives. (To be honest though, my very first, first choice would have been Silversmithing, Beginning, but that was not available this session so I went with Opal Cutting instead, but don’t tell Sarah.)
Anyways, I think it is going to be a very interesting class. Hopefully, I will learn a lot and grow as a jewelry maker as well as someone who designs jewelry.
Here’s to me not screwing up… too badly.