Over the years I've developed a true passion for opals. After being in the industry so long, it's interesting to look back and see how my own knowledge and techniques have evolved. For many years, I had only been purchasing Australian Opals from Rodney Beattie and, until recently, I've never seen what other opal cutters finished products looked like.
Wow, what a difference there is between Rod and everyone else. I had recently acquired some Yowah Opals and some doublets that came in from a contact of Rod already cut and for sale. When Rod first presented me the stones, the difference was obvious. Not only was the final polish not as bright as it should be, the doublets looked like two entirely different pieces of stone ... it was obvious even to the naked eye.
In the image below, I will try to demonstrate what I mean. Notice how the poorly cut doublet opals and the ironstone backing to the doublet seems disjointed. It doesn't fit against the contours of the opal perfectly and the gap is obvious.
Now take a look at a double cut by Rod, the back fits perfectly against the opal surface, there is a bevel cut into the back for ease of setting and the back is flat to allow for the the metal after setting to sit against the opal and make sufficient contact.
I suppose I have been lucky only to be dealing with Rod for so many years and that working with opal has been so stress free and easy for me. I hear horror stories from other manufacturers of how hard it is to work with opal because of this and that. I’ve never incurred any problems, including opal breaking during setting OR breaking from years of wear from my customers. We just don't have these problems because we are lucky enough to have true opal expert hand cut all of our opal from the rough and cut it in such a way that it’s easy to work with through the manufacturing process.
Whether you purchase a loose uncut opal yourself or you choose to let us help you design your own piece of opal jewelry, please know the opal you will be receiving is of the finest cutting experience this industry has to offer. You won’t encounter any problems setting our opals; you will find the small details within the cutting of our opal that makes a difference.
There is one more point that is quite important that I would like to mention here. I personally find opal more appealing when there isn't a major undulating surface. By this I mean, I like opal to be a nice dome shape and smooth contours; it should be pleasing to one eye when looking at it. I don't want to see what looks like a mountain range within a single piece of opal. Granted this is difficult sometimes as opal sometimes presents cutters with challenging shapes and seems to chase. If you look closely with the opal that Rod cuts and I sell almost all of my opal has pleasing contours, pleasing dome shapes and each opal has a slight curve and doesn't look “flat”. A lot of thought, care and expertise goes into making this possible. It’s small things like this that makes the difference between US and EVERYONE ELSE.
On your next purchase of our boulder opal, I challenge you to see these differences as I’ve explained here. Take another cutters opal and place it side by side ... can you see the differences? This assurance of visual quality, and knowing the artisans behind the work, is the reason I will never purchase opal from any other cutter. I look for this quality not only because I am passionate about opals, but also because I'm passionate about delivering the very best to you - my clients.