A thousand facets sits with Ancients 17 (aka Loren Gurche) they talk about being born in the natural history world and how that became his calling since childhood. We discuss the beginning of his opal business and we have a comprehensive conversation about the incredible world of opals and what makes this stone so unique.

About Loren:

I stumbled across the wonders of opal due to my passion for exploring all things natural history. I was fortunate to have been exposed to paleontology fieldwork at a young age, and I quickly learned I wanted to devote my life to exploring nature and understanding how the history of the land beneath our feet can inform us about the future of our planet.

I started teaching myself to cut opals when I was 19 and first starting college. Cutting opal quickly progressed from an experiment to an obsession, and I have devoted much of the last 4 years studying this gem, its formation, and how to process and cut them to best bring out their natural beauty.

I continue to follow a career path as a research paleontologist, while ancients17 helps to fund many of our expeditions and research endeavors exploring the history of the earth.

You can follow Loren on Instagram @ancients17 and @ancients17sales, visit his website

https://www.ancients17.earth/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/@DeepTimePaleo

Visit John Gurche's work - https://www.johngurchepaleoart.com/

Music by @chris_keys__

https://youtu.be/nKQHjg_E0yE

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