The Saga of the Stolen Opal
Ask Carolyn Tyler how she came to be a jewelry designer and she shrug and say with a wink “I guess it was in the stars”... and then she’ll tell you the spell binding tale of the Stolen Opal (which she calls “The Best Bad Thing that Ever Happened”). In 1990, a spiteful soon-to-be ex stole her only piece of “real jewelry”—a rare lavender opal pendant she bought during a school holiday in Greece 15 years earlier. She says “It was the only thing I would run into a burning house to retrieve”. Distraught, she traveled from Santa Barbara to Bali to find solace--and, as luck would have it, she also found a goldsmith to re-create her beloved treasure (she made three—one for herself, and two for her sisters, who had always loved it). While soothing her soul in Bali that year, fellow tourists went crazy for the necklace and bought them right off her neck.
An idea was born…
Tired from the running her California ad agency, Carolyn decided to move to Bali in 1993, and threw herself a going-away party. Friends from all over came to wish her bon voyage, but one girlfriend she met while shopping for jewelry in Bali could not attend. Vivien invited her to come to the Tucson Gem Show for an in-person farewell (and to introduce her to the Bali Artisan Community who exhibited there). When Carolyn arrived for her two-day visit, her friend explained that she was on “the next flight to New York” where her mom was in the ICU for heart failure. She handed Carolyn a shopping list to buy her stones for the Summer Season of designs and begged her to stay for ten days to do all the gem shopping. Carolyn was overcome by the beauty she saw there, and spent a large chunk of her “Bali Move” savings on gemstones, including a lavender opal like the beloved gem taken by her ex (but this one was too small for a pendant). She arrived in Bali with a satchel of gems, wondering why she had blown such a large part of her stash on sparkles. Then she remembered the goldsmith who had made the pendants! Fearing a redux of her 1990 experience, she ordered a lavender opal ring (modeled after the famous “double-duck” twin arm cuffs of King Ramses II, to replace the necklace) thinking people would be less likely to tempt her to sell it off her hand. With the rest of her cache, she made an assortment of iresistible treasures and launched into full-time jewelry designing in Bali, and building a fabulously whimsical house (featured in the November 1999 issue of Architectural Digest).
She then met the legendary Irish powerhouse, Linda Garland, a famous interior designer who would become her best friend, neighbor, and biggest supporter of her jewelry career. She moved to Nyuhkuning, Bali’s “Beverly Hills of Ubud”, and was introduced to all the glitterati—stars, authors, princes, and tycoons. In 1996 Carolyn Tyler Fine Jewels was declared a “Rising Star” by the JCK (America’s Jewelry-Industry apex show). Subsequently, her line was represented nationally by luxury retailers Neiman Marcus and Saks 5 th Avenue, where she shared rareified display space in the Precious Jewels department with Bulgari and Buccellati across America.
In the spring of 2000, while heading for a personal appearance trunk show at Saks in Santa Barbara, Carolyn encountered her ex, selling baseball caps from a cart in the outdoor mall. Happy that he finally had a job, she congratulated him, and asked what he did with the opal pendant. He lied (again) and said “I put it in your coat pocket and you unknowingly sold it at a yard sale”. Carolyn replied that she knew he was lying, “because your lips are moving”.
Now the truly miraculous part…
In December 2005, Carolyn opened Chahaya, a fine jewelry store in Santa Barbara, across the street from the spot where she encountered her ex. On the third day of business, Lucy Brown, an illustrator Carolyn worked with in her advertising years came in and asked how she started in jewelry design. Carolyn said “That’s a great Serendipity—have a seat, and I’ll tell you the Story of the Stolen Opal”, and proceeded to share the timeline. “Oooh”, Lucy said “I absolutely LOVE opals!” After answering Lucy’s many probing questions, she revealed that she had an opal pendant of that exact description, given to her by a friend in 1990 (the year it was stolen). Fate would have it, that her friend had received it from a new suitor (the ex, of course!) as a gift, but never felt “right” about it, so she gave it to Lucy, who was about to be married. Lucy shared that she thought the opal was bad luck (since her marriage ended quickly), so she only wore it once and it sat in her bathroom drawer for years without attention… She brought it to Carolyn on the evening of January 3 rd , 2006. “I burst into tears”, Carolyn says, “”It was like finding my kidnapped child after 15 years!”.
It was, indeed, the missing Stolen Opal (see photo)-finally returned to its rightful home. Lucy was more than happy to part with “the relic from her broken marriage” and explained that she just got engaged, “after all these years”. Noticing she had no ring on her hand, Carolyn offered to make her wedding rings as a thank you, and the cosmic circle of “coincidence” was completed!
The moral of this story is...When life gives you lemons, make the best darn lemonade there is, brand it, and let the world enjoy it!