Lorraine DePasque on Opal Jewelry

Switching from “Off” to “On” with Opal [excerpt*]

by: Lorraine DePasque

For well over a year, I’ve been thinking about opals—not Mexican fire opals, but all the others: precious white and black, Ethiopian and Australian, honey and seascape, and those cool pattern-y ones like jelly, matrix, and harlequin. Truthfully, until the past year-and-a-half-or-so, I hadn’t been thinking much about opals. For me, they just never ranked high up there as a personal style choice.
And, yes, I realize some people aren’t happy I’m saying that, but we all have our favorite gems, and then others we’re more lukewarm about. (Don’t we?) Maybe Sir Walter Scott’s 1929 novel, “Anne of Geierstein,” in which he wrote about opal as bringing bad luck to its owner, had something to do with it? Although probably not, as I’ve never been particularly superstitious.

Anyhow, of late, my position on opals has changed. Apparently, as more contemporary designers over the past year have embraced opals, I have, too. I’m fairly certain that the refreshing ways they’re working this “old” stone into jewelry are what’s made me take a closer look...
 
At Couture, I was impressed with Pamela Froman’s new designs based on October’s birthstone. For as long as I can remember, Froman’s been a fan of opals of all varieties, and she’s been working with a lot of Ethiopian opals, especially in her one-of-a-kinds. I especially love what she’s doing with opal matrix: taking the unusual, often complex pattern of an opal matrix and making it visually complementary to the unusual metalworking that’s signature to her jewelry. (Truly, it’s art, if ever I saw it.)

"Scroll Crush Mommy Earrings" 18k Pink & Yellow Crushed Gold, featuring unique Australian Matrix Opal briolettes, with sparkling diamond accents; "Mommy" means the Scroll Studs can be worn without the drops.

*This is an excerpt from the full article by Lorraine, which originally appeared on InStoreMag.com's Shine Blog.