A hinged bangle made from forged, hallmarked Sterling Silver and set with a freeform cabochon of synthetic Aurora Opal and three Freshwater Pearls in pierced Sterling Silver radar dish. This bangle comfortably fits a wrist up to 7” (18cm) in circumference.

Aurora Opal is an impregnated coarse crystalline substance with a directional and intensive play-of-colour, and I love it. I also love real opals – especially the very expensive ones.

Having cut and polished Boulder Opals I know how easy it is to loose a colour-bar in an opal and end up with nothing, so this Aurora Opal opens up many opportunities, especially the ability to cut and carve it and use it as the main constituent material of a piece of jewellery.

When designing pieces to make from the Aurora Opal I found that I was going back to the Menhir Collection’s shapes, and I really enjoyed taking what was mostly a flat shape and giving it 3D form. I then decided I wanted to add silver (at the very least) to the piece of jewellery so the lining around the shank seemed like an obviously place for it.

The more I looked at the opal the more it reminded me of the night sky and the idea of a small radar popped into my head and somehow then the name Sputnik came wafting in on the back of that, so the name was born.

Once I made the first radar, I was not satisfied with just a dish, it needed something in it and initially I thought that would be a round grain of silver. I had just acquired (for another piece of jewellery I was working on) some freshwater Pearls, so I tried one of them and it seemed like the perfect finish for a ring. Since then, the combination of Aurora Opal, Sterling Silver and Freshwater Pearls has been been what Sputnik is all about.

This bangle is 62mm tall, 63mm wide and 14mm deep.

SPECIFICATION

Materials: Aurora Opal and Sterling Silver
Stones: Freshwater Pearls