Mexican Opal & Sterling store Silver Ring (F)

Mexican opals are amazing stones with their fire, flashes of color and variety of appearances. They come in fiery red, yellow, honey and orange hues. But it is the fire that draws us to opals. Different angles of light reveal the varying colors and brilliance within the stone. This play of fire is also what makes them very challenging to photograph. I have attempted to show that in the various photos.

The sterling silver ring setting is artfully hand crafted to provide the best accompaniment to each individual stone.

Ring top measures 3/4" (19mm). It is a size 7.5

We purchased these lovely opals on our travels in Mexico.

Our opal buying tale follows…

Magdalena, Jalisco, the center of opal mining in Mexico. During our travels in Mexico, we headed there to shop for opals. (The last photo is of our motorcycle and trailer parked in the town square.) It was a decidedly interesting experience. Sunday morning found us sitting in the plaza waiting for the opal shops to open for the day. We were treated to the sounds of the excellent church choir as they sang their way around the square before heading into church. A local man approached us and asked if we were looking for opals. He had lived in the U.S. for a number of years and his English was quite good. As he had been standing close enough to overhear our conversation for a little while, he was certain of our answer. He then uttered a phrase that we were to hear repeated by other locals throughout the morning, “I know a guy.” He led us to various houses, offices, back rooms and shops. Once he had exhausted his sources, another helpful local was nearby to offer the opals he had for sale. Of course, he also “knew a guy”. So we followed him to various places around town. And so it continued. We accumulated some lovely opals along the way. Eventually our first guide found us again and took us to see the first seller he had introduced us store to. He had apparently convinced him to break out his better opals. After a well acted bargaining process, we purchased more opals from the “guy”. This all took several hours and provided us with not only a lovely array of opals, but a highly enjoyable experience and a good story to tell. We hope to return to Magdalena!