Thank you Pattye, Blaire, and Kat for the well wishes!
Yes, the center stone is opal and she uses such great quality stones so they really dazzle with color!
Pattye, photos of both keshi types would be really helpful, I think!
I haven't heard back from Barney's yet, but that's no surprise. I wonder if they'll take it seriously at all. Here's a thought, they may not carry the necklace at every store. When I visited the Las Vegas store back in 2014, they did not have the same items for sale by Judy.
I've been looking at google images with the search keywords: natural pteria sterna. It hasn't really been helpful. But then I ran across this image:
with the description: "Four natural pearls with different shape and appearance were used as beads in P.maxima oysters. Upper row shows the coated pearls, middle row shows x-ray ..." The webpage that the short google description doesn't appear to exist anymore, but it was intriguing enough to share here.