O.M.G! They look amazing!!! I need to learn this Jedi-Dome trick!
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I remember the first time I ever saw superglue. I had made a Koala from folding a single piece of copper and fastened him to a tiny piece of driftwood, but I could not get the driftwood to stick to the piece of rock I had for it. That was when a customer said “have you seen this amazing stuff that just came out” and one drop held perfectly. I had been making jewelry for several years at that point 
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My introduction to it was in '73 in the Navy. A friend told us of a new adhesive, put a small drop on our fingertip and said put your thumb on it… 
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My opal story: My sister got opal earrings from her godfather for her first communion. We went to the pool one day. She took them off and left them on her towel. We swam and swam. And when it was time to go, she had forgotten about the earrings and picked up her towel, shook it loose and then started to leave. Only then did she remember the errings. After much crying and wailing, we only found one. It was a sad time in the house that night.
I think I decided then and there that I would never covet jewelry. I would just lose it for sure.
Many years later, I started collecting cuff links. Some really nice ones from different places I travelled. I have a nice collection of single links now. I’m sad. I didn’t learn my lesson.
Beautiful stuff, @cynd11.
I read a lot about the Australian opal pits. wow. Of all the things that make me want to go down under, it’s the opals. Something atavistic I guess.
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The story of the poor farmer that found some pretty rocks he had sitting around the house from a hill called lightning ridge, I could write long sermons about appreciating versus coveting, so I know you could do better.
I have always been weirded out by the way folk act towards gold like that. Except for recent technology gold’s only real value was the ease by which really beautiful things could be made. So what is done with most of the gold in our society? They make ugly bricks out of it and hide it away in the dark 
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I know that is a powerful point to make, the beauty of gold. But the place it holds in the periodic table says a lot more about it. We have recognized that gold has properties that make it unique among the elements. Its utility extends beyond pretty and artful.
But yes. In the end. Gold’s value as a cultural talisman is by fiat. In the end, all the elements are and their isotopes are magical substances that reality depends on.
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But having been a goldsmith, and looking at our human history, gold was the first lesson and we got it wrong. Not every culture but this one in particular.
Silver is actually much more useful, it has incredible antibiotic properties.
The main reason for delving into gold and silver is to protect your assets against loss. Whenever inflation takes off, you bleed worth. Gold and silver have never lost value, what changes is the worth of the dollar relative to it. So having a little in your portfolio is a very good idea. It’s shelf-stable. 
If you put a small amount of your savings into it through life, say 10%/month, you are insulated against what the dollar does. And what the stock market does.
Markets crash and inflation happens…money is being printed right now at a horrific rate thanks to the lockdowns, to keep people fed when they can’t work. There will come a day of reckoning for that, sooner or later. It’s just a good idea to prepare for it so your savings don’t get completely wiped out.
I’ve been around long enough to have bought my first property at 15.75% interest rate. That was a disaster, and the current situation cannot hold the way it is. Something is going to happen within the next decade, maybe much sooner than that. I don’t want to see people lose their savings.
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That was the point BTW. It is not Fiat, but the result of greed over appreciation. So much greed that people quit wearing gold as a security risk, that they might be killed for its financial value. When fiat held the value to $35 an ounce and only available to Americans as its real value as display, there was a lot more displayed.
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It is all relative. Gold never makes a dime, while your Glowforge can create value every day. Cash can indeed go up and down, as can land, diamonds, and freeze dried peas. Under extreme stress the peas are more “liquid” than diamonds that in recent times have fallen to near worthless in small sizes. If rent income were was taxed or illegal, many who have grabbed possession of excess amounts would be as well off as those who stockpiled Ivory.
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We have friends who stockpile whiskey. They’re probably the smartest of the bunch.
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Like the Gkowforge, the Still is the real great investment as it has an unlimited supply of whiskey. Now something that can make stills might take that to another level.
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I actually have a small still. I use it to make my own distilled water.
(very Martha Stewart)
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I have considered that. Pam uses enough distilled water to pay its way even when a buck a gallon. My thoughts lean to a solar still, as I invented one many years ago that uses water head to provide the vacuum and works with no moving parts aside from occasionally restoring the vacuum. Like so much my mind’s eye is far bigger than my wallet.
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Yeah, solar is much better from a cost standpoint. This one should pay for itself in a few years. BUT… I’ve had it for a couple of decades. (Took a while.) 
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Unfortunately the one I designed is very square/cube sensitive as the proper liquid depth is the same no matter how big the operation, and larger is more energy efficient than smaller, so if you know someone with a desert island with no water but would like to put a hotel there I have just the thing.
Short of that the Atacama desert design is simple and low cost.
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Great story.
When I made opal earrings I cut a stone in half to have aperfectly matched pair. Carefully shape them and very carefully set them in gold (opal is fragile) 
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Inevitably she would lose one, and want me to make another to match it. Trying to replicate one to match the other at a later date never pleased me for the effort it took, so she has a small collection of singles. 
I’m amused at the things I have chosen to cling to across life.
"You will never see a hearse pulling a Uhaul." 
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It is the children pulling the U-hauls 
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they would be good to gang together as a necklace? 
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Yes! I have repurposed a few exceptional stones into pendants.