This is an opal from Koroit, in Queensland, Australia, that I got early in February of 2000. The setting is a Five-lead Eleven-bight ring, of a size that will barely fit over the perimeter of the stone. This should hold it very well, while still allowing a full view of both the front and back of the opal, as well as glimpses of the sides. (08-22-02 -- This picture is one of the first few I've taken with my new camera.)
You'll notice the chain that it is suspended from is rather unusual, made specifically for this piece.
Follow these links for some more opal pendants. Large Translucent
Divided Lovers
Butterfly
Mexican Fire Opal
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This is an Australian opal that I cut and polished myself, using wet or dry sandpaper over the sink... since I don't have lapidary tools, and wasn't planning to get into that aspect of the trade. When I started, I knew which was the front, but I am no longer certain. I call this my "heraldic" opal, because the striations mirror the "bend" of heraldry, the diagonal slash that is referred to as the "bend dexter" or the "bend sinister."
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Here is a Sinnet Ring, a toroidal knot, the first one I've done in wire. (April of 2002) It required considerable preparation, and many aspects of its creation were very different from my methods for making Turk's Head knots. The pure silver makes it fragile -- these, if I make more of them, will only be available in 18K gold. (More)
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This is a nice heavy piece, a Five-lead Eight-bight Turk's Head in twisted Champagne Gold. Since I doubled the knot, the ends are well supported and I didn't bother to solder them at all, just fused the ends so they wouldn't unravel and poke out.
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A lady up in Michigan requested a "Star of David", and I remembered that Turk's Heads have stars inside them when flattened into round mats. This five-lead six-bight knot has a six pointed star inside it, one point for each bight. The astute observer will realize that the two triangles actually make up a two-lead six-bight Turk's Head, though it is not the "single-line" type of knot that I prefer. I made this with fine silver (999) and 18K yellow gold. It gave me some other ideas while I was making it, so this pattern will probably evolve further.
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And, sure enough, here's another along the same lines. Same materials, but a slightly different design, and now it's a five-pointed star, recognizable as a two-lead five-bight Turk's Head superimposed upon a four-lead five-bight Turk's Head, if one wants to be technical about it.
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![[5x17 on opal]](opal.jpg)
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This piece, now, is very much a departure for me. I made a five-by-seventeen ring, large in size and of small wire, then pulled it down around this Yowah Nut Opal as a setting. The chain, of which you see only a few links, is made up of seventy three-by-two turk's heads, stretched out along the center line of the knot and each linked to the next through both loops. This was agonizingly tedious, as the links had to be tied together in sequence, and the chain will probably remain a one-of-a-kind oddity. The stone is unique in its own right, as such opals tend to be. (The setting no longer exists, click here to see the new one.)
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Here's a pendant, made with a three-strand twist of yellow gold and a solid strand of palladium-alloy white gold. (18K) Since it is very difficult to get the lengths of the strands to come out right when I stretch a ring out into a mat, I flatten it before I add the second and additional strands. It's shown here with a coin for size comparison.
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