Australian Facetors' Guild Limited

I had the chance to facet some Fire Opal from Madagascar recently. The fluro yellow colour appealed to me. My first two attempts were fails. The first stone - I chipped a girdle while polishing it. And would you believe it  - I chipped the culet on final removal from the dop on the second stone. But chipping two stones in a row made me more determined to cut this particular gem. Failure is a good learning curve. In my opinion it's failing that makes for a better cutter, and that applies to many other things in life. I'm still really a novice in my first year of cutting,  but the first  3-4 gut wrenching months of cutting will either make you or break you (especially on polishing). Anyway, I uploaded  another vid on my first attempt on cutting a "Emerald cut" in Fire Opal. Some of you seasoned faceters will notice some novice mistakes. Heck! I even noticed them. Forgot to cut the corner girdle facets. Luckily I could resolve that problem before cutting the crown. I've cut quite a few round brilliants, but sometimes a new design can look strange in it's progression. Regards Cliff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Qk747p04w&t=4s