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Victorian repro splendour from Black Opal Direct, M'sOpalWorld, and CvB - B&W opal/OEC earrings + bracelet

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Aug 14, 2009
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My 2019 opalooza!!!! :mrgreen2::cool2::kiss2::kiss2::kiss2:

Last year @mrs-b posted her glorious opal ring, and enlightened me to a void in my own collection that called for quick remediation. Y'all know how that goes :geek2:

I'd been thinking about having some 'formal' earrings made with OEC halos a la @soxfan's old cluster ring for a while. After talking with @mrs-b and seeing photos of her black opal, I knew that I'd want a black of my own... and after talking with @diamondseeker2006 and seeing photos of her white opal, I knew that I'd want a white of my own too. So we decided to throw everything together :whistle:

Caysie was wonderful to work with as always!! :kiss2: This project wound up taking several months, but I wasn't in any hurry. Finalizing specifics of design didn't take long at all - Caysie's first sketches and CADs captured everything I wanted :cool2: Manufacturing, though, was a bit of a comedy! Yoram's first batch of OECs was the wrong size. Then asymmetric seating we'd dreamt up to equalize face-up protrusion of the larger black and white opal pair (the black was ~4mm deep and the white ~2.5mm) didn't work as expected, so Caysie sent the black out for backside reduction surgery and recast the mounts. Then, at the end of production, the posts had to be re-aligned... Caysie kept me updated at every step, and I felt completely comfortable leaving all concerns in her hands as I was confident she wouldn't let anything slip through the cracks :kiss2: And apparently when you take "worried" out of the equation what's left is "funny" - I'm really not sure whether my amusement with both events as they unfolded and with her growing exasperation with events as they unfolded was appreciated :mrgreen2:

I love these earrings!! The stones, the halos, the combo of pink and white metal... They're perfect :kiss2: They're definitely special occasion pieces - I'm just lowering my bar for 'special' and making excuses to wear them :mrgreen2:

We decided on 14k RG and 14k palladium/WG to minimize weight - each earring comes in right around 4.5g. I always thought opals needed yellow metal, but the larger pair both have so much red - Caysie and I both agreed RG was the obvious choice! I'd originally requested genuine antique diamonds for the halos, assuming having stones custom-cut would be much more expensive - the latter turned out to be significantly less costly, and the stones have quite a bit of variance in faceting which is exactly what I wanted :geek2:


Stone 1: 1.76ct Black Lightning Ridge opal, 8.5 x 7 x 4 mm

https://blackopaldirect.com/product/black-opals/1-76-ct-black-opal-gem-8-5x7x4mm/
Body Tone: N4
Brightness: B4
Predominant Colours: Red
From Black Opal Direct
Bottom stone:

Stone 2: 1.16ct White Lightning Ridge opal, 8.7 x 6.6 x 3.0 mm
Body Tone: N7
Brightness: B4
Predominant Colours: Red
Bought from MSOpalWorld

Stone 3: 0.6ct White Lightning Ridge opal, 7.5 x 5 mm
This rough was cut for me: https://blackopaldirect.com/product/opal-carvings/1-36-ct-white-opal-to-be-recut-for-jan/
Body Tone: N7
Brightness: B4
Predominant Colours: Orange, Green
From Black Opal Direct

Stone 4: 0.6ct Black Lightning Ridge opal, 7.5 x 5 mm

This stone was recut for me: https://blackopaldirect.com/product/black-opals/0-80-ct-black-opal-triangle-gem-7x6x2-8mm/
Body Tone: N4
Brightness: B5
Predominant Colours: Red, Green
From Black Opal Direct

Halos
Bottom halo: 1.12ctw (16 stones) per earring - custom-cut OECs from Yoram F.
Top halo: 0.32ctw (16 stones) per earring - custom-cut OECs from Yoram F.
 
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And some of mine. I've never had really nice opals before. The opals I did have... the colour was hugely directional, and was always a struggle to capture with a camera. These opals - they're show-offs!! So easy to photograph :kiss2:


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Those are amazing @yssie ! I think you need a matching pendant!:whistle:
 
My goodness, these are just stunning!:love::love::love: They look absolutely beautiful on you, as well! Like you, I had never really seen good opals in person, and I was happy with my first modest purchase. These are just top notch in color and placed in the most gorgeous and complimentary settings! You and Caysie do well together! And I love that you used Yoram's baby OECs for the halos! They are subtle but beautiful! Congrats on making a one-of-a-kind heirloom pair of earrings, @yssie !:appl:
 
HI:

Why do I get palpitations when I see Yssie's name on new threads in the SMTB forum? This.:love::love::love::love::love::appl::appl::appl:

cheers--Sharon
 
Love love love!!!!
 
@yssie -

I'm on a plane right now and it's a rough flight. But I just wanted to quickly say - I saw your name and the word 'opal' and got a huge smile on my face! I've been waiting for these!

Briefly - the opals are magnificent! (isn't Justin the BOMB?!) The workmanship is superb. And you are the frigging QUEEN of asymmetric design!

Congratulations - stunning!
 
Magical :love::love::love:, romantic and one of a kind heirloom earrings. And they look absolutely dreamy on you. You're an earring girl if ever there was one because any new pair of earrings that you wear looks stunning. Congratulations on such a wonderfully successful project! And Caysie is amazing. Her work is impeccable.
 
Beautiful. Beautiful. Stunnng.
 
Absolutely Stunning, need a BIG ring? :wavey:
 
Beautiful stones for stunning earrings.
They look lovely on you
 
Yssie, ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!
Congratulations on such a beautiful pair of earrings :kiss2:
 
OMFG these are literally AMAZEBALLZ.... :dance::love::kiss2::clap:

Justin's opals are the best and the settings are just divine...I am beyond envious! :whistle:
 
Amazing. They are truly, completely gorgeousness at its best and stunning on you. Enjoy :clap:
 
Amazing! These may be the most stunning earrings I have ever seen. Wear in good health!
 
I’ll respond individually shortly!! :kiss2: Just wanted to add a little more on the opals themselves:


Both Justin (Black Opal Direct) and Jordan (M’s Opal World) are FABULOUS vendors!! Both are incredibly helpful and very willing to share their expertise - I learnt so much about opals from them! Finding them, cutting them, evaluating them...

Jordan actually custom-cut a second white opal for me - a beautiful N9 that is astonishingly colourful, especially given the light body tone! That stone is a mate for another black opal that I picked up along the way - I haven’t yet decided what to do with them ::)

Some things I’ve learnt:

Finding a mate is hard!

Matching stones (body tone, primary colours, play of colour, dome height) isn’t difficult so much as effectively impossible unless both stones are taken from a single specimen of large, homogeneously-coloured and patterned rough. The first stone I chose was the large black from Justin, the one he describes in his video as “pigeon blood red”; he told me there was just no real possibility of finding an exact match, and that if matching was my goal having a pair custom-cut (or an existing pair recut) would be my best option... but finding larger rough with that amount of red and that evenness of colour distribution within any reasonable timeline and budget would extremely unlikely. The top stone in the comparison video I posted was an alternate candidate - it’s a more typical black opal that would certainly have been easier to find a match for. But that red on the bottom - she stole my heart :kiss2:

Caysie’s still photos show the most extreme colour differential that I see between the two blacks IRL. They look more closely related in-person, especially when in motion - their predominant colours are different but they have exactly the same type of colour play :cool2: The two whites have similar predominant colours but are less well-matched in play of colour, and in my opinion if they were black opals the real-world personality dissimilarity would be jarring - I “get away with it” here because in general colour is much more subdued against white than black!
Opal colour can vary a ton through a stone...

Opal colour forms in layers through the depth of a piece of rough, and different layers within the same stone can show very different characters! Whilst a high, convex dome is desirable, preserving as much surface area of a thin layer of exceptional colour is always top priority, even if that demands a lower, flatter dome.​

Both my white opals have relatively high domes, and both blacks are somewhat flatter. It’s visible in side/profile photos, if you squint, and it’s wholly irrelevant IRL - obscuring dome and shape/size asymmetry was one reason Caysie recommended a multi-prong airline setting specifically :mrgreen2:

Play of colour matters more to me than predominant colour.

This was probably my most surprising realization! Justin has a couple of really helpful videos on play of colour and pattern type:
https://blackopaldirect.com/blog/opal-pattern-types-video/

I’ve learnt that I personally prefer “chunky” opal patterns - patterns featuring proximal blocks in some pseudo grid that turn on and off and change colour as the stone moves. Flagstone, harlequin, pinfire rather than rolling flash, mackerel sky, broadflash. I think it’s because I’m a diamonds person first and foremost, and I object on principle to gemstones that demand that you (literally!) look at them right :mrgreen2: I want my sparkles and colour play crisp, clearly-delineated, direction-agnostic, and #InYourFace, #ThankYouVeryMuch!​

But of course everything’s in context right? My sixth opal - the black mate for Jordan’s second white - is a mackerel sky, and it’s objectively the most spectacular and arresting specimen I’ve got. Subjectively its a bold, “modern-feeling” pattern that I’m struggling to do justice for...​


The TLDR - I’m set on opals of my own (really, seriously, really!) but for anyone considering them - I’ll echo other posters and strongly recommend reaching out to Justin and Jordan!!
 
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@yssie they are opalicious.:love: Love them on you. Wear in health and blingy joy. :appl:
 
These are exquisite works of art, you wear them beautifully @yssie :love::love::love:
 
OH! Wow! Such gorgeous earrings and they look beautiful on you!
 
:love: Those are freaking incredible! Beautiful! Stunning! I don’t know the right word, but they are ALL of whatever the right words are! :lol: The opals are just gorgeous, the settings are so meticulously perfectly crafted ... just amazeballs! Congratulations! :clap:
 
Happiness = a new SMTB thread by yssie!! :mrgreen: These are INSANELY beautiful!
 
Holy moly, you’ve done it again!! So glad you’ve decided to make more “special” occasions so you can wear these beauties more frequently! And thanks for the opal education!! :read:
 
Blimey, these are absolutely exquisite! The opals are just stunning, the diamonds are fire balls & holy moly, the DETAILS in the settings are just amazing! Fabulous vision & a big congrats to Caysie for the execution!
 
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