By Ted Grussing
… I shot quite a few stones and two pieces of jewelry today and without a lot of comment here they are.
This ring is the piece of black jade that I carved and inlaid a 4 carat +/- Virgin Valley opal which originated in the Bonanza mine in Nevada.and it is one of the most beautiful pieces of crystal opal that I have cut … absolutely flawless and as stable as any opal in the world. The carving with inlaid opal is set in an 18kyg mans ring … need to do one of these for myself … and this one fit me.
This one is a piece of Queensland boulder opal that I started cutting a long time ago and just recently finished polishing … it weighs in around mid 40 carats, is 38mm x 26mm x 8mm and I set it in a silver custom bezel. I’ve never set a stone in silver for myself before but felt like doing it for this stone … kinda blue jean jewelry. It has nice colors and fairly bright and pretty good coverage. This came in a 30 gallon barrel of boulder opal cutoffs I acquired in the early 80’s. It yielded some magnificent stones and some kinda … well you know not so good ones. We spent a summer going through the barrel … dumping part of it out on the driveway, running a hose on the piles and neighbors and neighborhood kids joined in the fun and I think some nice stones went home with them as we always let them pick a few stones to take with them after we spent a few hours sorting through it. Still have some nice pieces too.
This stone is a piece of Mintabie crystal opal that I recently cut … a beautiful stone with full and rich colors throughout. I think they have closed the mines in Mintabie, or are closing them … it produced some very beautiful material. Located in the north of South Australia.
The final piece tonight is another piece of Queensland boulder/ironstone opal. It has magnificent blues and/or purple color depending on the lighting. Not really possible to get a clean stone out of this, but it will make a nice work of natural art in a pendant … been looking at it for about 35 years or so and time to work it.
Have a beautiful day and rest of the week … back Monday morning.
Smiles
Ted
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
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