This one kind of dates me, as this is the opal ring I made for Kathy back in the 80’s that I’ve talked about elsewhere on the site, when I lived in a studio apartment in West Texas (though it could actually also use a touch-up or two and some re-polishing!).
Made entirely of some scrap sterling sheet I still had in my toolbox at the time and a few hand-tools, this is the piece that resulted in a request by my mother-in-law for a pair of opal earrings back then which took me close to three decades to finally make. :-/
Not having anything in the apartment to attach my bench pin to, and using a portable torch set-up with disposable propane and oxygen bottles for soldering proved to be a little challenging in some ways, but I was determined to get it done.
I thought the free-form opal cabochon looked a little like a pear, and as the style of jewelry I was so accustomed to making at the time was southwestern in form, I thought a design incorporating a serrated leaf, serrated bezel and a split-shank band (all very popular in southwestern jewelry at the time) would go good with it.