Laguna Beach, where we lived and worked back in the Seventies, was the first stop for itinerant stone salesmen coming back from their buying trips to the Orient and starting their selling tour of America. We were the last to see the latest stones from Europe, but the first to see those from the East, which maybe partially explains why jade and Australian Boulder opal became favorites for Arley: she got first pick in all the new lots. This particular stone was one of the best we had ever seen, and seemed to deserve special treatment, which, after a lot of thought, it got.
Arley decided to use it with two 16th Century Japanese bronze sword parts she had in her stash to create this striking pendant. She carefully designed a non-invasive way to set the stone and marry the disparate elements without major damage to the old castings. A fitted gold cradle holds the opal securely with prongs coming through from the back. One new little hole drilled in the bottom of the fuchi and a matching hole in the top of the kashira were needed for the swivel, and these two little holes were her only permanent alteration. (Fuchi is the fitting at the butt end and kashira is the one at the knife end of a built up sword handle.)
The original much bigger holes in the sides of the fuchi, previously used in fastening it to the tang, are large enough to admit a very large necklace, and a necklace is shown in the photo to illustrate how nicely this piece hangs, but the necklace is not included.
Overall, this piece is three inches high. Opals are difficult to photograph accurately, but this one really is really as special as our well lit but unretouched image suggests.
The crisp lettering on the blade side of the kashira is intriguing. We imagine it as a message engraved by the swordmaker to help the tool in its work. But if someone out there will send us the translation, we will add it here: Email the message on the kashira.
Opal and Sword Fittings Pendant . . . . . . . . . .$ 2,000
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