Iriane High jewellery in Australian opal

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Compose
Salon
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Iriane

The fire in an opal is made of light.

Plate I

A platinum ring with an oval black opal held in four claws, lying on violet-black velvet under one overhead lamp; green and blue fire across the stone.

A yellow-gold ring with an oval boulder opal in a bezel on violet-black velvet; a blue vein runs through brown ironstone.

A rose-gold ring with a cushion of clear crystal opal in four claws on violet-black velvet; soft green and violet colour lies deep in the stone.

Flash at the centre: green

No. 05 · Harlequin · Ring Black opal · Lightning Ridge Dark body; broad angular patches of green and blue, and now and then a flash of red. An oval cabochon held in four platinum claws, on a plain band.

The plate shows No. 05 under one lamp.

No. 05 · Black opal · Oval, claw, platinum

Black opal from Lightning Ridge, crystal and white opal from Coober Pedy, boulder opal from western Queensland, set in rings, pendants and earrings made in our workshop in Adelaide’s East End.

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East End, Adelaide

ii · Foreword

On the stone

An opal is silica and a little water. Inside precious opal the silica has settled into tiny spheres, stacked in rows, far smaller than a grain of sand. Light passing between them is split and sent back as colour. The size of the spheres decides which colours an opal can show. The angle you hold it at decides where you see them.

So every opal has two colours: its body, and its fire.

The body tone is the ground of the stone. It is near black in opal from , clear to milky in opal from , and brown ironstone in boulder opal from . The fire is the light that moves across it as the stone turns in your hand.

We choose each stone for both. Then we draw the setting around the stone, and not the other way round.

iii · Where the stones are found

Three fields, three bodies

Lightning Ridge · New South Wales

Black opal

Body tone: Dark, near black.
Pattern: The colour sits forward, in patches.
How we set it: A bezel or low claws, so the dark body frames the colour.

Coober Pedy · South Australia

Crystal and white opal

Body tone: Clear to milky.
Pattern: The colour lies inside the stone and moves as it turns.
How we set it: Open claws that let light in at the sides.

Western Queensland

Boulder opal

Body tone: Brown ironstone, left on the back of the stone.
Pattern: Colour in veins and ribbons through the ironstone.
How we set it: A bezel that follows the stone’s outline.

iv · Nos. 01 to 12, in order of their fire, red to violet

Catalogue of pieces

Each piece is listed by the colour of its strongest flash when it lies level under the lamp. Move along the list to see it in the plate.

v · Entry No. 13

Compose a piece

Choose the stone first, then the hand. The plate draws it as you choose, and the catalogue writes it down.

Composing a piece needs JavaScript; one entry is set below as an example.

Stone

Black Boulder Crystal

Cabochon

Oval Cushion Pear

Setting

Bezel Claw

Metal

Platinum Yellow gold Rose gold

No. 13 Composed on this screen

Ring · Boulder opal · Western Queensland · Pear · Bezel · Rose gold

A pear of boulder opal from western Queensland: brown ironstone, with colour running through it in veins. Closed in a rose-gold bezel, on a plain band.

See it in the catalogue

An illustrative guide to price

vi · At the bench

The setting is drawn around the stone

A jeweller’s hands in dark buttoned sleeves work a fine steel tool against the claws of a platinum black-opal ring at a timber bench peg, under one lamp. — Bringing a claw down over a black opal, under the bench lamp.

01
The stone
It is chosen under the lamp, turned until its best face is found.
02
The drawing
A drawing at full size, face and profile, made around that stone.
03
The setting
The bezel or claws are made to the stone in platinum or gold.
04
Setting and finishing
The stone is set by hand, the metal finished, and the piece goes back under the lamp.

vii · Worn

Chosen for the wearer

A pear of boulder opal in a platinum bezel on a fine chain, worn over a high-necked charcoal wool garment beneath a dark draped scarf. — No. 08, Ribbon: a pear of boulder opal in a platinum bezel, on a fine chain over charcoal wool.

A pendant’s length is chosen with you, against what you wear.

A ring’s height follows the dome of its stone and the hand it is for.

Earrings are matched as a pair, stone to stone.

viii · The salon

A table, a lamp, a tray of stones

A small dark room with a round timber table under one pendant lamp, a velvet tray of six loose opals, a loupe and a ring on a cone, two chairs facing across it. — The table in the salon, set with a tray of loose stones.

The salon is a quiet room in the East End with a table, a lamp and a tray of stones. You may look at loose stones under the lamp, hold finished pieces, and talk through a drawing. Visits are arranged through the form below.

ix · Care

Keeping an opal

Opal holds a little water: keep it from sudden heat and sudden cold.
It is softer than sapphire or diamond: store it apart from harder stones.
Clean it with a soft cloth and plain water.
Keep it out of ultrasonic and steam cleaners.
Take a ring off for the garden and the gym.
Bring it back to the bench to have claws and bezels checked.

x · Enquiry

Write to the salon

Tell us what you have in mind, or which stone you keep coming back to.

Your name

How should we reply?

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What are you thinking of?

A ring A pendant Earrings A stone of my own to set Not sure yet

A stone you keep coming back to

Black Boulder Crystal White Not yet

Your entry

A visit to the salon

Anything else

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Colophon

Stone: Lightning Ridge · Coober Pedy · western Queensland
Setting: The workshop, East End
Light: One lamp, from above
Type: Bodoni Moda and Tenor Sans
Pictures: Photographs are illustrations. The stones in the plate are drawn in the browser.