Gold smithing: making an 18k gold opal pendant. 

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Thanks Ed, it’s definitely a “one hand washes the other” with respect to sharing happiness, the feedback has been genuinely encouraging . Cheers. 🤪👍

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Thanks Oleg, it’s all one great big learning curve, gotta love RU-vid, so many jewellery making videos. 🤪👍

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@@theopalmills 👍😍💎😉🏆 You did it!🥇

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G’day Tony, I’m about a week behind you, hope to be there next weekend, have a great trip. 🤪👍

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G’day mate, thanks for the info, I didn’t know about the heat, I treated it like silver. You’ve just made things a lot simpler, so many times I thought it was going to melt the bezel, or the loops on bails. 🤪👍

Thanks Surajit, I hope you and your family are well, “Cheers” to “free trade” 🤪👍

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G’day Sierrah, Costco? Who’d have thunk? I will definitely be working with gold again, I know it’s more expensive, but, if I start off with light settings for the smaller stones, the gold can go a long way. The gold did seem a harder metal, but i was being gentle trying to reduce unwanted makers marks for less cleanup after. 🤪👍

I spotted a $320000 diamond ring when I walked into Sydney's Costco. Needless to say I was surprised to find a ring in Costco as I was making assumptions about what they stock. I've seen all sorts of stuff in Costco now...even seen a Mahogany and Gold handled coffin there once....weird place that Costco...

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Thanks Caleb, not sure if you got my email, but let me know if I can help. 🤪👍

Hi I got the email and I have had a talk to my parents but I still have not decided but I have talked to a few opal cutters about it and I am still considering thanks a lot Caleb.

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G’day Scott, thanks, yes I neutralise in bicarb soda as I have it on hand for matrix treatment , then fresh water. I found the gold to be roughly the same but more durable as far as leaving tool marks, much better behaved than silver. 🤪👍

G’day Matthew, this was the first time I have worked gold, the doublet I made for a client from bits left over from the parcel I cut/carved for them, they requested this stone set in gold. I think we were both wondering if I could do it. 🤪👍

@@theopalmills well you certainly did it. Excellent piece buddy.

G’day, from my understanding of pricing doublets, you have to consider the price of an equivalent solid, and around 10% of the price of a solid. You may have started out with a white/grey based opal with a weak translucent colour bar, and once you’ve isolated the bar and added a blackened backing, it will now look like a black opal and that’s the classification for its valuation, not the white/grey it started out as but the black it now is. So it could either be because of the weak coloured stone it starts out as, or, the stone got too thin with colour still worth salvaging, that the decision to make a doublet was made. 🤪👍

Thank you so much”. I have often wondered how much and now I know. It’s best to doublet when a stone is to thin and if a stone has good color but looks better with a black back ground. That’s why a true black opal is the highest priced opal?

@@phoenicianstones4783 yes, black opal has the natural advantage of colour contrasting best with a dark background, so a doublet is made in this way to better enhance the colour. I’m not in agreement with this, but some countries are calling doublets made with opal top and bottom “natural opal” for marketing purposes as it can’t be called a solid and they don’t want to call it a doublet.

I agree with you , they are not a natural stone if you have to enhance it in any other way. Period! But”””, they are beautiful make sure you know what your buying!

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No, gold solder is made from a mix of components with the most significant addition being the low melting point metals such as indium, cadmium, zinc and tin. 🤪👍

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G’day mate, I didn’t consider actual measurements, it’s more by eye. I wanted a thick enough bezel for strength, so around 1 mm looked good. I haven’t got a background in jewellery making, I just do as I please based on what I think I know. 🤣👍

Selling can be subjective, wholesale, local or international retail, it depends on the market you have access to, anywhere from au$800-$1500 (rough pricing at the time this was made)

G’day Joe, sorry mate, this piece was made for someone. If you see an opal you like on this channel, as long as I own it, I’m willing to set it, you can email me if you’d like, I’ll put my email link in the video description, to assure you it’s mine as I’ve had someone try to pull a scam on viewers comments with a false link. 🤪👍

G’day Kayne 🤪👍

@@theopalmills hope you are having a good weekend .

G’day mate, the stone is a doublet, as with all opal the price is regardless of the weight, the stone is valued by many factors then divided by the carats to arrive at a carat price, hence excess backing reduces the carat price as excess weight is one of the factors considered when pricing. The backing on the doublet is to ensure stability, strength for setting, not just to blacken the background. I don’t have any certification in jewellery making, but it’s not rocket science, I’ve learned that I can use almost any thickness of bezel a long as I file the bezel thin where I want to push it over, I don’t just squish in the sides, I actually work the metal to fold it over, encapsulating the stone. I’ve never set a loose stone. I’ve shown my bezeling process in other videos, but filming it is hard as I block the camera a lot, you just see my knuckles. 🤪👍

@@theopalmills Thanks.

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