Opal for a friend

I recently received a fairly cryptic message from a good friend of mine. Something to do with wanting a 4 carat opal cut for a ring she wanted to get made. She sent me a couple of pictures of a ring with an opal surrounded by what appeared to be rubies, or perhaps garnets.

Opal engagement ring which belonged to actress Sharon Tait

She told me after a few more messages that the ring in the picture belonged to actress Sharon Tate (Sharon Tate on Wikipedia), who was wearing the ring when she was murdered in the late 60's.

We figured out that without knowing the exact measurements of the stone, I wouldn't be able to get it exactly the same size, which was no issue. I also mentioned that the opal in the picture appeared to be of pretty high quality and that whatever rough opal I had would not be of the same standard. This was also of no concern.

As this person is one of my closest friends, I went pretty much straight to work. I picked out a nice looking piece of rough jelly opal from Coober Pedy (South Australia). Here are some photos of what the end result was (bearing in mind that all I had to work on was the picture above):

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

This opal is what is known as Jelly Opal and it originates from Coober Pedy in South Australia. 97% of the worlds opal is mined in Australia with 80% of that coming from the mines of South Australia including Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie.

Unfortunately I am hopeless at taking photos of opal to get the colours to show. This piece does actually have a fair bit of flashy reds, blues and greens, but they don't really show up in these pictures. Clearly the stone is not the same sort of quality as Sharon Tate's ring, but I think I got the shape pretty much right. The one I cut ended up being roughly 6.4 carats and valued at around $25 AUD per carat.

I will be heading up to Sydney for a few days next week and will be handing over the stone to my friend while I am up there. She has already organized for a jeweler to make the replica of the ring for her. Hopefully it all works out and the ring turns out as nice as the original!

You can check out more of my opal cabochons in my store by visiting www.jakagems.storenvy.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/jakagems

Thanks for viewing!

Until next time!