Meet Larry Sklar

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Larry Sklar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Larry, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Time & experience have been major factors in developing resilience. The gem industry can be very challenging, difficult, and demanding. Rejection is commonplace, as there are numerous other dealers, each one offering supposedly better quality or better prices. I have a firm commitment to high quality opals at reasonable prices, with the quality of my cutting second to none. I strongly believe in the value of my product – opals – and have enough experience and knowledge to have 100% faith in what I am providing to my customers. “If at first you don’t succeed….”

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I purchase rough Ethiopian Welo opal (Welo being the province where the opal is mined) and cut & polish it into finished gems. These opals are fabulous for one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces, or simply as a collectible. I sell my opals through my website (opalexclusively.com) and social media (Instagram & Facebook), as well as directly to area jewelers and jewelry artists.

I first learned how to cut opals over 50 years ago, and the magic of seeing a rough piece come to life through the cutting process is still as exciting now as it was when I cut my first piece of opal all those years ago. What makes my opals particularly special is the quality of the cut and final polish on the opal. Opal is an easy stone to cut, but a difficult stone to cut WELL. A “Sklar opal” is a cut above the rest due to the meticulous care I take to get the most ideal shape, color, and scratch-free polish out of each piece of rough, resulting in an extraordinary finished gem.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Patience, perseverance, and dedication to continuous improvement have been critical to enable me to get to my current level of expertise. I have a strong underlying passion for opals & opal cutting, and I believe having a strong passion for something can be a very significant driving force.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Although I have recently learned basic jewelry fabrication, my passion is for opal cutting rather than making opal jewelry. I would like to collaborate with a jewelry artist to create a unique collection of opal jewelry. Very few, if any, jewelry artists concentrate solely on opal, and I would like to change that. I can be reached via email ([email protected]), through the contact section on my website (opalexclusively.com), or by phone (734-604-8118).

Contact Info:

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