Jimmy Secatero Opal Necklace

Hey my turquoise loving family I know this is a little off topic(not being turquoise that is), but I came across this Jimmy Secatero necklace in the family collection. I believe it is fire opal? I recently watched a charming video with Mr. Secatero showing off his beautiful jewelry and was even more pleasantly surprised to hear he has worked with/for our very own @mmrogers :blush: Just wanted to share this beautiful necklace with yall!

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Beautiful. I love opals, especially when paired with turquoise.

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This looks like lab (synthetic) opal, which he did use in varying shades (many examples online).
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1835165069/signed-jimmy-secatero-navajo-silver-with?epik=dj0yJnU9eVp4M3YyYUpBV21xZWRYb2J3UkZtVEd5U0V5S19DWmYmcD0wJm49bUZlUnFtc2ZrZXN4aWJTbXBxMW1LZyZ0PUFBQUFBR2liVEpj

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Beautiful necklace! Jimmy always does exceptional work. Here, he would have done all of the silver work on the necklace, with the inlay done by an expert inlayer.

Interesting. The solder splashes on the back of the necklace @chicfarmer referenced are quite uncharacteristic for Jimmy’s work. Has me wondering if whoever manufactured this made mold copies of the original silver panels, cast them down, and had someone far less expert assemble them.

Castings, especially poorly cast items often come out of the investment with major areas of porosity (holes in the surface of the silver). Production shops often use silver solder to fill the porosity. In this case, it looks like this is precisely what was done, and not very well.

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The opal is created, not natural opal. Interesting necklace.