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help me set an opal for my wife

bobsiv

Rough_Rock
Trade
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
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I am a hobby faceter and I've been working with a lot of Ethiopian Welo opal lately. i'm planning on giving the nicest one I've cut so far to my wife for our anniversary, but I usually sell my stones loose and don't know much about setting. I'd like to put this in a custom silver pendant, budget up to about $200. Any ideas? Here is the stone, it is 10.5mm in diameter.

katie1-1.jpg

Thanks everyone!
 
I haven't been able to wring much guidance out of her, but I do know she doesn't want any other stones in the pendant.
 
Can you describe the type of jewelry that she likes? I tend to like either very traditional (e.g. Leon Mege) or organic modern (e.g. brushed yellow gold and bezels). If it were me, I would go contemporary with the stone you have, and do a bezel with a back that allows light inside but still allows the stone to lie flat, and puts the culet away from the skin. Julia Kay Taylor has beautiful bezel work in Argentium silver, but the budget may be limiting. My favorite pieces of hers are the most simple ring styles shown in this page:

http://www.juliakaytaylor.com/rings.html
 
Have you tried DanielM jewelry on etsy? Just google that and he'll come up. He should be able to set that for you within that budget.

Julia is usually backed up for months.
 
Thanks for the tips. I showed my wife some of DanielM's stuff on Etsy, but I don't know if any of it grabbed her. If I had to guess, I would say his stuff was a little too basic and modern. She's kind of a hippy and would probably like some embellishments. If that's not feasible with my budget I'd understand.
 
All I can advise is not to bezel it, because bezeling will diminish play of color, and few artisans work with prongs. Try myheartmonster on etsy. She has interesting designs, most of them modern, but she is very creative. She made a very interesting ring for packrat.
 
I decided to go with Daniel M and risk a bezel setting. Thanks for all the advice. Here's the picture he sent me, I think it looks great.

pend2.jpg
 
I saw this this morning on Etsy and thought how well it suited the gem. Beautiful delicate milgrain and yet a substantial setting. I think it's gorgeous: congratulations :appl:
 
Looks awesome!
 
Gorgeous pendant!
 
That's a great combination!
 
What a loving and thoughtful gift to give your wife. The fact that you faceted the stone makes it EXTRA special in my eyes.
 
Good-looking setting! It shows off that nice Welo opal very well & she can wear it with anything. Lovely gift.
 
Great setting!
 
It did come out great. Daniel M did a fantastic job on the bezel, very smooth and even.
 
Looks good. If you go to mount one later in something like a Tripps mount, my advice is patience. Work slowly and do little, incremental adjustments. Just like mounting lug nuts on an egg shell (I may use that next Saturday.... back... I added it to my PowerPoint for FFF4). I have mounted at least 4 with zero issues. Slow, methodical, gentle.
 
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