Dance of the Diamonds
Thomas Turner’s dazzling copper-bearing opal necklace
By Tina Snyder
When it comes to designing a piece of jewelry, overthinking may be overrated. Thomas Turner of Kalamazoo, Michigan, prefers a somewhat subconscious approach, starting with a beautiful gemstone and letting his mind wander.
That’s exactly how the necklace design for a copper-bearing opal from West Java, Indonesia, came to life. After picking up the stone at the Tucson gem shows two years ago and cleaning up the edges with lapidary tools, Turner took his signature unstructured approach to designing around it.
He started by scanning the stone into Photoshop and printing it out on about eight different sheets of paper. “I then sketch different ideas quickly, almost without controlling myself,” he says. “I try to remove the conscious effort and let the subconscious take over.”
He then selects his favorite sketch to refine and chooses materials for it. In this case, he paired the copper-bearing opal with 18k yellow gold, white and black diamonds, a black pearl, black onyx beads, turquoise beads, and hand-fabricated 18k yellow gold beads.
The opal is found in petrified wood and features streaks of copper that oxidize, giving it a metallic sheen. Turner wanted to emphasize both the cool blue, black, and green hues of the gemstone, as well as the warmth of the copper streaks.
He began by fabricating an 18k yellow gold shelf bezel for the opal, which gives volume to the pendant. The opal itself is only about 4.5 mm thick, but the bezel is 10 mm, so it can be raised up off the body when worn. He fabricated a shelf for the opal to sit upon within the setting.
Next, working from his sketch, he placed the unset diamonds face down on his workbench and started moving them around—tapping his subconscious as when he first sketched the design—until satisfied with the arrangement. He tube set the black and white diamonds into 18k yellow gold tubing ranging from 5 to 8 mm tall, soldered the diamonds together into a cluster, and then soldered the cluster to the bezel setting.
A post soldered to one of the larger black diamonds in the center of the cluster holds the black pearl, which he chose for its bronze undertones to accentuate the copper in the opal.
With the bezel and diamond cluster soldered together, Turner was ready to determine where to add the two tube-set diamonds on the sides of the pendant that would connect to the necklace. “I had to play with the balance point of the piece so it wouldn’t flop over when worn,” he says. “I wanted the connection points to be low enough so there was a visual space between the busy part on top, but not so low that the pendant would flop.” To find the balance point, he put all of the elements together and played with balancing the piece along the edge of a piece of steel. “A little one way, a little the other. I do this until I find a physically and visually acceptable compromise between space and balance.”
The two diamond settings also hide the multi-strand cable upon which the beads are strung. A small hole drilled in the side of each setting accepts the cable, which is then knotted in a crimp bead and pushed back up into the tube setting.
The black onyx, turquoise, and 18 yellow gold beads that he fabricated to match the shape of the onyx beads are spaced with silicone bumpers. Turner says these bumpers help the piece drape and move better. “They also create a nice reveal between each bead,” he adds.
Of his subconscious approach to design, Turner feels it brings about a more clean, simple aesthetic. “I like clean looks—and I wanted the dance of the diamonds to compliment the activity of the pattern in the opal,” he says. “Sometimes, it’s more difficult to create something simple.”