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Opal Necklace with Hand Engraved Scroll
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The beauty of a gemstone quality opal and 14 K gold both provided by Mother Nature have been brought together with man's handicraft to provide a prize winning necklace and earrings.
The 7 x 14 millimeter opal from the Spencer, Idaho mines has a dark background with flashes of gold, green, and blue providing an exciting gemstone. The size, beauty and color of this stone was best enhanced by a gold mounting.
The artist designed a scroll, flower-type design to surround the opal, drawing attention to it in sheet gold. The scroll design was drawn with swirls and leafs to roll around the stone. The scroll was hand engraved, the old fashioned way, engraving the
outline. Then the small shading lines were added for definition and flair.
The darkened areas of the 14K sheet gold have been "deep relief" engraved, which means the metal is chiseled away to allow the raised sections to show up in a three dimensional manner.
Gold bezel wire was gold soldered to hold the opal in place, then formed tightly around the stone. Then hand polishing with tripoli and rouge completed the final finish.
Matching earrings were designed with small Spencer opals using the hand engraving to add shading and details to the 14K sheet gold.
This set was placed in the Orange County Fair Exhibit by Dave Jones and won a first place ribbon for Hand Crafted Jewelry Design and Fabrication.
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Copyright, 1997 by Dave Jones
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Dave Jones designs, hand engraves, and fabricates in precious metals. He won
First Place in the jewelry fabrication and design competition in both
the 1995 and 1996 Orange County Fairs.
Born and raised in New Mexico, Dave has lived in Colorado and
Arizona as well as California. His southwestern background has
influenced his work as have the artisans and teachers he has studied
with in Southern California and Arizona.
For Information on Custom Design Jewelry, contact Dave Jones at (714) 847-5712
or E-mail pjones@hbuhsd.k12.ca.us
P.O. Box 3242, Huntington Beach, CA 92605
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