All of our finished Australian opals are solid opal, not doublets or triplets, cut in-house from carefully selected rough by our master gemcutters. Due to the individual characteristics of the original stone each finished opal is a unique piece. Matching sets are difficult to create and such sets will not be sold as separate stones.
Photography Photographing opal gemstones is notoriously difficult and often the camera cannot capture the play and range of colors. All of the photos are taken according to the grading standard in the book "Opal Identification and Value" by Paul Downing. Our loose opals are lit by a 100W incandescent bulb shining 20" above the gemstone on either a dark or light background without flash. The photos are not enhanced or altered except adjust the contrast. Photographs are taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4300.
Every effort has been made to reproduce the opals as accurately as possible without digital enhancement of the images. Due to the differences in computer monitors there will always be some distortion of color. Despite these unavoidable differences, we believe that these photos are honest representations of the stones. The true color and beauty of Australian opals can only be appreciated by seeing the stone in person.
Rough Opal All our rough opal pieces and parcels have been photographed according to the above standard. Often Australian opal rough is covered with a thin skin of iron oxide and potch which does not show the true fire within. Our rough opal stones are photographed wet to help better show their inner color.
