There is always the possibility of combining an opal and another gemstone such as a diamond or ruby. But when this happens it is really making a piece of opal jewelry and adding a diamond accent or a ruby accent. It is a combination but a combination of two gemstones and there is nothing so special about that. But this... this is something very different!
Opals can be millions of years old in their formation and pearls can be a year or two. So is it possible to combine the two in opal jewelry? But this time I mean to make them into one gemstone! Yes, it is and it certainly is most exciting.
In Shark Bay, Western Australia, the two gems are meeting in harmony. Shark Bay is an area where cultured pearls are harvested and that is a considerably sophisticated industry dealing with nature, a fragile environment and at the end of the day a fickle market.
Then, way out in the middle of nowhere in Lightning Ridge, NSW opals are found twenty metres or more underground.
The cut and polished opals are taken to Shark Bay and implanted into a live pearl shell. The oyster is put back into the sea and left there for over a year, perhaps a year and a half. By this time the mother of pearl has covered and embedded the polished black opal and it is ready to harvest.
Over this time the process involves careful observation and tender loving care of the pearl shell.
When the time for harvesting is ready it is taken out of the water and a skilful jeweler prepares the stone and its pearly surrounds to be made into a gorgeous piece of jewellery combining pearl and opal. The result is one of a kind.
The opal pearl combination is wonderfully suited to making pendants. Sometimes the original opal is set in gold before it is places in the pearl shell.
There were many experiments and the original opal in a pearl took three years to harvest and now the public is lucky enough to be able to buy these exciting items of opal jewelry, or is it pearl jewelry?
