I make jewelry from Australian opal. I started my lapidary while living in Australia for 20 years. Now I return to the Outback every 18 months to visit the mines and buy rough boulder opal from the miners. I ship it to Aspen, saw, grind and polish it myself here. 

The Process:
I begin by cutting the rough stone and grinding it to reveal the vein of opal. The grinding process gives way to polishing when the first pinpoints of the colorful opal vein become visible. 

Now the excitement really starts. We finally see color! The grinding and polishing stages are quite involed, and I use up to 10 different grits and compounds to attain a high polish. 

The final shape of the finished stone is determined by the natural shape of the opal vein lying within the interesting patterns and colors of the surrounding host stone. Below are pictures of me cutting, polishing and grinding.