I discovered this boulder opal at Tuscon this year (2026) and was struck by its unique play of colors and its fire grabbed my attention. It was the perfect size for a ring but somewhat of an unusual shape – so ideas started to percolate. The opal was discovered in the Quilpie Opal fields in Australia by Rocky Carbone of Rocci Opals. I met Rocky at Tuscon in February and enjoyed looking over everything he brought. This piece was very unusual and I considered it to be a high grade boulder with distinctive flash.

Tucson is such a candy store and nearly impossible to walk away from without spending 3 or 4 times what you told yourself you were limited to! I have some finds that will emerge later this year that I'm also excited about.

After many ideas and sketches, I decided on a back set signet style ring in 14k gold and Continuum (a palladium silver alloy). I wanted to protect the opal, and this design emerged as the strongest candidate. It was a challenge deciding how to orient the stone, but I finally decided on an asymmetric orientation that felt right.

I knew I had to recut the opal to create a shoulder for this design to work – and this is an absolutely nerve wracking experience on an expensive stone. I built a special fence for my mini milling machine with a diamond burr and water feed, then proceeded to cut the shoulder. Just a few thousandths at first to see how it cut, and hoping chunks of opal don’t go flying off. Sweating bullets of course! But the first pass was good, and edge was clean. Huge relief and then proceeded to do the other 3 sides and everything worked out ! Yea! (So, no screaming running pulling my hair out.)

I had to determine the depth of the shoulder so the opal was slightly proud of the gold frame.

Next up was to build the gold frame the opal was to be back set into.

I decided to mitre all the joints on this element, which is a bit over the top and maybe a little excessive. Not an easy thing to pull off, but part of my woodworking career emerged. Since the stone was final cut, I could build to fit. Angles were measured and I made some precise angle templates out of some phenolic sheet I had – these I could use wet on my intarsia machine. I was able to grind the angles perfectly with the diamond plates. Joint sides were soldered, edges were flattened, then the top plate was cut out, and fitted then soldered. Joints were tight and everything cleaned up very well.

After the gold frame was made, I needed to make the plug, which would be captured by the bottom edge of the frame and act like a bezel to hold the stone in place. I also mitred this plug frame since I had the templates. I was a little concerned about the weight of the ring, and decided on this design with an open center. I ground a 10 degree angle on the edges of the plug so that the bottom of the frame captured the plug.

Next, the band was formed from an 8mm low domed continuum bar and mitred for the side returns. These joints were soldered, then the gold frame fitted, and everything soldered together. I decided on a combination brushed/polished finish with burnished edges.

This ring is surprisingly comfortable, given its angular design, with a comfort fit throughout its design. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive! Let me know what you think.

Photo credit: Kian Berreman instragram@kian.rgb