Dendritic Opal Dangle Earrings, Sterling Silver, White Pink Oval Cabochon, A-Frame, Handmade Statement Jewelry

These dendritic opal cabochons are wide horizontal ovals with pale coloring. A soft gray-white with a faint blush of pink that shifts depending on the light, almost translucent in the upper portion of each stone, like light coming through a misty sky. The boundary between the pale upper area and the dark lower clusters is soft, not sharp, and the overall effect is atmospheric in a way that feels less like looking at a stone and more like looking at a painting.

Each stone was hand-selected for the quality and placement of the pattern and for the translucency that keeps the pale ground from reading as simply white. Dendritic opals with this kind of soft base color and degree of translucency are unusual finds. The original gem cutter oriented the oval to put the contrast between the pale upper field and the dark lower clusters on full display.

The A-frame setting gives the horizontal oval the vertical structure it needs. Two curved, textured bars sweep outward and down from a small loop at the top, widening as they descend to cradle the wide bezel at the base. Silver spheres sit at intervals along the bars.

Hallmarked Blue Piranha and .925. Earrings measure 2¼ inches (5.7 cm) long from the top of the ear wire, and 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide. Weight is just under 16 grams. Set on sterling silver ear wires.

A lever back option is available, please see photos and note your preference at checkout.

Your purchase arrives gift boxed, presented in a soft pouch with a story card.

Good for: the one whose jewelry drawer has been missing something that looks like winter light. A birthday for the woman who appreciates the quiet things. The milestone that deserves something delicate and permanent at the same time.

Questions? Please message me. I'm happy to help.

About Dendritic Opal: 

The branching black forms inside dendritic opal are not plant material, despite how convincingly they resemble it. They are manganese or iron oxide deposits left behind when mineral-rich water moves through fissures in the host stone and then evaporates, leaving its mineral traces in place. The pattern is determined entirely by the path the water took and where the minerals concentrated, which is why no two dendritic opal stones are ever the same. The gem cutter's job is to orient the rough so that the most compelling composition faces up. Found across the world, dendritic opal is sometimes called Merlinite or scenic opal, though these names refer to the same material.