Mexican Opal Sterling Silver Pendant

Mexican Opal

Mined in the town of Tequila, this opal formed inside gas bubbles of the host rock Rhyolite. Adam went to the mines in 2013 and worked alongside the miners there. Mining this opal is hard work, mostly done using hand tools. When there is no opal to be found, the miners harvest the native agave cactus to distill into the drink tequila . The gems form in small ancient gas pockets in the host rock, which is pretty hard stuff. As with a lot of opal, you have to shift large amounts of stone and dirt to get to the gem material and this is mostly done by hand (unless you can get hold of some homemade explosives!) Because the opal cannot usually be completely separated from the Rhyolite it is ‘inclusion-heavy’.

Sterling Silver (925%)

Why do silversmiths use 925%? Measured in parts per thousand, pure silver (999%) is too soft so silversmiths mix it with other metals to make it it harder. The purer the metal, the higher the polish, but it is a lot softer (thus less durable). The harder the metal is, the more hard wearing the jewellery is, but it will also tarnish easier as it has less silver content. Therefore, the silver industry set a standard percentage content for fine silver (925); what we know as "sterling silver". At Two Skies our silversmiths use 925 (sterling) silver for ring shafts and moving parts, and a very high 950% on our stones settings, which enables us to get a strong jewellery item with a beautiful and secure stone setting, without any gluing. Each piece of our jewellery is hand stamped with our Two Skies Hallmark alongside the recognised industry 925 Hallmark.