Rodrigo & The Rose

This was a bespoke commission: a 22k gold ring mounting a vintage white opal. The opal had had quite a story. It was my first or second trip to Jaipur, and I had gotten onto this rickshaw, which was idling right in front of my hotel. By then I was getting into the habit of spotting beautiful things in unexpected places, and on our way to Gopal Ji Ka Rasta, I couldn’t help noticing that some planet configuration in that rickshaw-wallah astral chart dictated that he should wear a ring with an opal set in silver. The ring was quite worn down, and the stone had the  faded beauty of an ancient pebble with unexpected sparks of light and colour. Endless haggling ensued, which went on for days on end, much to the rickshaw-wallah amusement (he must have been used to tourists’ oddities), but eventually we reached an agreement and I bagged the ring. In the following years, the nice old man was still there, in his ancient rickshaw, waiting for customers in front of the hotel… But the opal sat in my “treasures box” for a long time, until a lady with a taste for old, beautiful stones with a history of their own, chose it for a ring. We went for a worn down look of the ring and the stone setting, which the softness and warmth of 22k gold would afford beautifully. Pictured above.