I started buying opals from eBay a few months ago, mostly polished to a high sheen and from Thailand ( via Australia where they were mined ). SOme of them were phenomenal, some slightly less dynamic. And then I discovered a seller who puts up opal 'preforms', which have been cut, but not completely shaped and not polished.
I purchased cerium oxide and fine grit sandpaper and broke out the beloved dremel and began to grind and lovingly polish off the dim top layer, and what I am discovering is fantastic. I feel such a love and overwhelming passion for these stones. They are, by jewelers standards full of 'inclusions' ( cracks ) and apparently not worth a whole ton of money, but they display a small world in which I want to live: bits of fire that change with a minute turn. Always exciting, almost alive.
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