R.I. lady turned pearl present in a clam into her engagement ring

The Boston Globe

Sandra “Sandy” Sikorski discovered a pearl in a plate of clams she was savoring together with her fiance Ken Steinkamp at a Westerly restaurant. The couple made it the centerstone of her engagement ring.

WESTERLY, R.I. — Sandra “Sandy” Sikorski’s engagement ring is the stuff desires are made from.

As her fiance Ken Steinkamp tells it, the couple met by a relationship service on a wet night time in December 2019. They had been each residing in Westerly and rapidly realized they had been soulmates. They’ve since weathered the ups and downs of a relationship.

“Time collectively speaks to the significance of getting engaged,” Steinkamp instructed the Globe. “We had rings early on, simply as a token of our dedication, however this (pearl ring) amps up the promise. I feel it’s the making of a Hallmark film.”

The breathtaking jewel on Sikorski’s left hand got here to the couple in a most conspicuous approach. She slurped it from a clam, believed to be from Narragansett Bay, on the Bridge Restaurant and Oyster Bar over Christmas 2021.

The couple, who had been accompanied by Sikorski’s brother and his spouse from Tampa, gasped on the silky cream-colored pearl earlier than them. They’d by no means seen something so dazzling.

The hefty Mercenaria pearl measures 9.8 mm — about six karats if it had been a diamond — and is completely oval. Nobody had ever discovered one eating on the Bridge Restaurant, in line with a restaurant worker. A clam would wish to go untouched for practically half a century to make a pearl this measurement.

“This has a very nice luster,” Steinkamp stated. “That’s what caught my eye. It’s uncommon to get one.”

Alongside the New England coast, solely about 1 in 5,000 laborious water clams produces a pearl, and most are “poor high quality or broken,” in line with the Worldwide Gem Society.

The gem society web site stated that shells and pearls from quahogs had been as soon as a type of forex amongst Native People within the area. They’re composed of calcite and Argonite crystals and infrequently seem white, lavender, or mahogany in shade.

The pearl is especially particular as a result of Sikorski prefers clams to their pearl-making cousins.

“I don’t like oysters. I like cherrystones,” Sikorski stated. “My sister comes from Florida and we journey as much as many eating places searching for the very best cherrystones. That’s why we preserve going again. We’re loopy over them.”

Just a few months in the past, the couple — he’s 75, she’s 70, each are artists and romantics — determined to decide to their relationship and have a hoop made. They had been despatched to Marc Fishbone, a famend goldsmith simply over the state border in North Stonington, Conn. Lately the 71-year-old jeweler, woodworker, and former nuclear submarine welder works in a modest store in a strip mall. He does little to no promoting.

Sikorski spent three hours speaking to Fishbone about what she needed for her ring. And Fishbone, a world traveler, shared a few of his tales about working as an artist earlier than attending to work.

The couple was prepared to attend a yr for the ring to be accomplished, however Fishbone completed the intricate metalwork in two weeks. He solid the gold, making it sturdy and regal, in order that the pearl didn’t should be reduce in any respect. Two diamonds from Sikorski’s assortment had been added.

Fishbone stated there have been no blemishes on the pearl.

“I began taking a look at it and I used to be stepping into a few of my drawers to see what I needed to play with,” Fishbone stated. “I discovered a chunk, I re-modified it, and I used to be in a position to take eight prongs and add it to the piece to make the pearl arise. The piece got here out lovely, much better than what I ever thought. When she got here to choose it up, she was nearly crying and needed to offer me a giant hug.”

Fishbone began off as a welder on a nuclear submarine at Normal Dynamics Electrical Boat, turned a wooden carver making eating room tables and benches, and in addition sells actual property. A few of his inspiration comes from carvings on previous picket frames.

He not works full time although he’s normally open by 10:30 a.m. The identify of his enterprise — “The Black Orchid” — is a nod to his time residing and studying the jewellery enterprise in Sri Lanka, the place he noticed a black orchid.

He calls his time in South Asia, “soul-changing.”

“Diamonds are a dime a dozen however a coloured gemstone is exclusive,” Fishbone stated. “I make so many various engagement rings now, with all completely different sapphires. You add diamonds to the sapphires. Don’t overpower however simply add to them. You need that shade and that look. A real Ceylon sapphire sings to you. I prefer it when stones sing. They’re not blah.”

Steinkamp stated he might hear Sikorski crying when she known as to inform him she’d picked up the ring, which apprehensive him. Since he was driving, he pulled right into a Cease & Store car parking zone when he acquired the decision. However his fear rapidly turned to pleasure. His bride-to-be was shocked at how attractive the ring was.

“I feel it’s the way in which it was wrapped,” Sikorski stated. “It’s wrapped in 18-karat gold, and really elegant; a bit of classic. Due to the luster of the pearl, the gold matched it. The yellow gold makes it seem extra particular. The filigree (steel carvings) made it look richer.”

“He (Fishbone) just isn’t solely a personality,” Steinkamp stated, “however well-known for his workmanship.”

“We went again to the Bridge Restaurant they usually had been enthusiastic about it. They posted it on their web site. We didn’t suppose a lot of it till we had been known as by a TV station in Windfall that does a program about good tales,” Steinkamp stated.

Since then, it’s been a whirlwind for the couple, who’ve heard from media shops nationwide. They’re joyful to share their story.

Sikorski is Steinkamp’s queen, he stated.

When Steinkamp sees the pearl ring on Sikorski’s hand, he thinks it’s spellbinding.

“This seems to be prefer it must be in your head,” he tells Sikorski. She stated the ring is an heirloom piece that she needs to go onto her granddaughter sometime.

“It’s an incredible feeling truthfully,” Sikorski stated. “It’s a imaginative and prescient and seeing a imaginative and prescient come true. We had been going to get married final yr however the ring was all the time behind our minds. That is what we had been going to do for an engagement.”

Some folks have instructed the couple they’ve been looking their total lives for a quahog pearl, thought-about to be one of many rarest gem stones.

“I’m humbled by (the protection of it),” Sikorski stated. “It’s attainable to make one thing lovely from one thing you are taking without any consideration. A bit factor you present in a clam.”