The Opalized Necklace

This piece is made from Opalized wood which requires an impossible litany of special earthly circumstances in order to form deep beneath the earth. Start with a forest. Cover it entirely in ash. Allow a lake to form on top. Add special diotomes. Wait several hundred thousand years. Evaporate the lake. Uncover the forest. If you are lucky a tiny fraction of wood from the forest may have opalized. I took this precious chunk and set it simply in 18k gold and oxidized sterling. Stone is 38 x 19mm, chain is 32”.