Black Opal

[den]

Moray, POVray, colours created in Apophysis 2.0

Comments

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

ooooooooooooooooh!!!!! that is gooooooooooorgeous!!!!!!!!!! :-)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

OMG! You have no idea how much I love black opal *grins* james_b kept having to pull me back in all those overpriced Japanese touristy type areas. .. but damn! That is nice.

But I wonder.. maybe it's my monitor, but the colours do look a bit surface, I don't get the sense of translucence and depth and layers of colours that I get from opal. I know I'm being dreadfully picky.... it really is a lovely piece.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There are only 2 layers on the texture: a glassy surface and the colour map. I'm working on Opal v2.

And I know a little shop in the mountains above Sydney that sells all sorts of Opal. We'll have to check it out nect time.

Or we could go to Lightning Ridge for a few days. 8)

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

I've heard Lightening Ridge is THE place to go - a bit hot and dusty, but I'm game if you are.

Mother will be annoyed with me for not going to Coober Pedy, but my understanding is that a) that's a looooooooooooooooooooooong MAMBA out there, and b) it's white opal, not black

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Coober Pedy. Feh! The Ridge is the place to go. It took me 1.5 DAYS to drive to CP. LR is only 5 hours away

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

Then it's decided.... next Christmas we shall go trekking to Lightening Ridge, where I will aquire myself some darling Black Opal.... Unless in some strange unforeseen circumstance I should aquire some Black Opal before then... perhaps with diamonds and platinum or titanium or...

"OE!!!"

Hushing now..

Stunning

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

Absolutely breathtakingly stunning! I used to cut opals, and I never cut one approaching what you've rendered here! These are truly magnificent.

Re: Stunning

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Come and see me, and we'll do a Road Trip to where the black opals come from.

Re: Stunning

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Don't tempt me... *muttergrumble* *envy*

Re: Stunning

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

How I'd love to visit you, and go dig for opals. I've read lots of magazine accounts of the people who comprise the opal fields. I've dug Mexican opal, which isn't as spectacular. The matrix is rusty red and the colors are somewhat limited. But the black Australian stuff? Oooooooh. The white isn't bad, either, especially if made as a "doublet," where you glue a white cabachon to a polished black piece of obsidian behind it to reflect the light and form a backdrop for the colors.

Re: Stunning

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Boulder Opals from Queensland have that rusty red potch, but it makes the colours more stunning to see them shining from plain old stone.

There is also a thing called a triplet, where a thin veneer of opal is glued to an obsidion backing, then covered with a quartz dome to give it a rounded surface and to magnify the colours.

Re: Stunning

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

oh, and the real opals are better than this.

Re: Stunning

[haggis-bagpipes.livejournal.com]

I like your icon: it's subtle.