A Spotlight on Australian Opals

October's birthstone has always felt a little different from the others. Most birthstones are about color - a single, definable hue you can point to. Opal isn't like that. It's not one color. It's every color, shifting depending on where the light catches it, and it never quite looks the same way twice.

It's been a while since I carried opal in the shop, and I missed it. I love how saturated the color is, and the way it pops the second the light hits it from the right angle. Moonstones do the same thing, which is why I wanted both back in the case.

I've also been thinking a lot about color lately, and about getting back to basics. I bought myself a fancy set of colored pencils, because there's so much promise in a box of them, and I've been sticking to primary and secondary colors to keep my focus. Opal and these moonstones show that idea perfectly: the whole spectrum held inside one small stone.

That's where this small collection came from: four one-of-a-kind pairs of earrings with Lightning Ridge opals, rainbow moonstones, sapphires, and keshi pearls. Before I show you the pieces, here's where the opals come from and why two opals can look so different from each other.

Where These Opals Actually Come From

Every opal in this drop comes from Lightning Ridge, a small town tucked into the outback of northern New South Wales, Australia - about 500 miles northwest of Sydney. It's a place defined by red dirt, dry plains, and rugged, sunbaked terrain that looks like it belongs on another planet. It's also the only place in the world where black opal is found.

The opals have been mined there for more than a century, formed slowly over millions of years through a complex interaction of water, silica, and minerals moving through the ground. That process is what gives Lightning Ridge opals their signature dark body tone - which, as it turns out, is exactly what makes their play-of-color so intense. The darker the background, the more vivid the flash.

I source mine through Columbia Gem House, working with their long-standing partner Cheal Opal, a family-run mining operation. It matters to me that the people pulling these stones out of the ground and the people cutting them share the same values I try to hold onto in my own shop - transparency, fairness, and a genuine love for the material itself. These opals are completely natural and untreated, exactly as they came out of the earth.

Two Opals, Same Origin, Completely Different Personalities

Here's something that surprises people every time: black opal and Ghost Opal™ come from the exact same place, formed by the exact same process, and yet they look almost nothing alike.

Black opal has a body tone that ranges from near-opaque to fully opaque - a deep, dark background that makes its flashes of blue and purple feel like they're glowing from somewhere inside the stone. It's dramatic. Moody. The kind of stone that looks like it's holding a secret.

Ghost Opal™, on the other hand, is almost the opposite - translucent to nearly transparent, with little to no body color at all. Instead of drama, it offers something more ethereal: soft, shifting flashes of blue and purple that seem to float rather than glow, since there's so little behind them to hold the color in place.

I currently have a pair of earrings that pairs the two together - one black opal, one Ghost Opal™ - and it's honestly one of my favorite things in the case right now. Side by side, they make the case for why "opal" is never really just one thing.

Meet the Pieces

Each of these is a one-of-a-kind pair, ready to ship.

Opal and Sapphire Cascade Drops

A graduated cascade of color, and a showcase of Australian gemstones. A 6x4mm Lightning Ridge black opal sits at the top, followed by a round green sapphire, a marquise blue sapphire, another green sapphire, and a 5x3mm pear-shaped black opal at the bottom. Every stone is bezel set in 14k yellow gold, so the opals flash violet, blue, and magenta against the deep blue and cool green of the sapphires. It's a little rainbow strung in a line, swinging with every movement.

Oval Rainbow Moonstone Studs

These are 6x4mm faceted rainbow moonstones from India, lit from within by that signature adularescence: a cool blue glow that drifts across the stone as you move, breaking into flashes of green, gold, and soft peach when the light catches just right. Each oval sits in a 14k yellow gold half bezel that curves around the top and bottom and leaves the sides open, so light pours through and keeps the stone glowing.

Pear Ghost Opal Studs

A pair of 5x3mm Lightning Ridge Ghost Opals™, cut as pear-shaped cabochons and bezel set in 14k yellow gold. Their translucent bodies glow with soft flashes of violet, pink, and gold that shift as they catch the light. The gold frame is simple on purpose, because the stone is the whole show, and it never looks quite the same way twice.

Moonstone and Keshi Pearl Drops

Blue-flash moonstones sit up top, faceted 6x4mm ovals held in 14k yellow gold prongs, with that cool, electric shimmer. Below each one hangs a freeform white keshi pearl, baroque in shape and soft in luster. No two keshi pearls are ever alike, so these drops have a natural, one-of-a-kind rhythm all their own.

I didn't design these four to be worn together, but opal and moonstone share that same saturated, light-catching quality, and in the case, they have a nice conversation with each other.

Living With an Opal

Opals ask for a little more attention than some other gemstones, and I think that's worth being upfront about rather than glossing over.

They sit at a 5 to 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, which puts them on the more delicate end of what I typically work with. They also contain a small amount of water within the stone itself, which means very dry conditions - a windowsill in direct sun, a safe with no humidity for months at a time - can actually cause them to dry out and crack over time. My own rule of thumb: if you're storing an opal piece for an extended stretch, keep a small glass of water nearby in the same space. It sounds unusual, but it genuinely helps.

Day to day, opal is a soft stone, so I treat it with the same care I'd give pearls or moonstone - a soft, damp cloth for cleaning, no ultrasonic cleaners, no harsh chemicals, and please don't drop it. And while I never want anyone to feel afraid to actually wear their jewelry, I'd treat opal as more of an occasional-wear stone than an everyday one - something you reach for deliberately, rather than something built for the gym or gardening.

None of this makes opal less worth wearing. If anything, it's part of the appeal. A stone that asks a little more of you tends to mean a little more, too.

Why Opal, Why Now

Last year, I was introduced to opal from Lightning Ridge for the first time, and the color never really left me - so saturated, so luminescent, that I knew I wanted to work with it again. While I was sitting with that thought, I kept noticing the same quality turning up in a particular batch of moonstones, and this small collection grew out of that overlap.

If you're on the fence about opal, here's what I'd say: there isn't a ton of genuinely good opal showing up in fine jewelry right now, and a fair number of lower-quality stones out there have dulled the reputation of what is honestly a spectacular gem. The Lightning Ridge opals I found are very nice quality, and they come with a great origin story too. Opal has been treasured since antiquity, straight through the Art Deco period - it's a classic, a little bit spellbinding, and even the way it forms underground feels almost like magic. I think a beautiful opal belongs in any serious gem collector's jewelry box.

If you've been curious about opal but never quite found the right piece, October feels like the right month to finally look. Come by the showroom, or reach out - I'd love to show you the black opal and Ghost Opal™ side by side and let you see the difference for yourself.