More boulder opals and a blue lace agate that I cut . . .

I love this stone - it is another boulder opal - but the pattern is just amazing - it is my favorite stone I've ever cut . . . it looks just like flames . . .

Here are three new trees - the shell tree is a new thing for me but I think it came out really nicely.

This pendant is made of Damascus steel.  I was initially surprised I couldn't find any guides for cutting it since it is so pretty.  I found out why when I started cutting it - it is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard to work with.  But the final piece came out pretty.

This stone has a funny story behind it.  A friend of mine goes to garage sales a lot and got me this slab of green rough at a garage sale.  Green is my favorite color so I started cutting it and noticed it literally foamed up when I cut it.  I've never seen a stone that did that before so I asked an online group about what it could be and it turns out it is asbestos.  The guy that told me said 'You didn't buy that at a recent show I can tell you!'  Anyway, I figured I might as well finish it since I'd done the rough cut.  So this is what asbestos looks like cut into a cab . . .

More boulder opals - I really lucked out on getting that second one in a lot - I think the seller should have sold that piece of rough individually - but it worked out great for me!

This is what I love about cabbing stones versus faceting - this moss agate has all sorts of colors and patterns in it but it would be considered scrap for faceting.

This plume agate is similar - it reminds me of a thunderstorm.