About Us & Opal

About Us

Hello, I’m Peter and welcome to Stone to Gem Opals, our online Australian opal shop. We are a family run business located in Melbourne, Australia and we are passionate about transforming rough stone into beautiful gem opals to share with the world. Unveiling natures true beauty is a magical experience and we love what we do.

The uniqueness of the play of colour or fire in an opal is what makes these gemstones special and no two opals are the same, that’s why opal is personally cherished and the perfect gift that you can pass on to your loved ones to keep for future generations.

We only sell quality Australian solid Opal standalone gems, that we hand cut and polish in our workshop. All our opals are cut and shaped and ready to be set in jewellery. So come and check out our collection and see which opal catches your eye!

How We Specify Our Opal

Origin – The name of the town or area in Australia where the opal was originally mined.

Play of colour and pattern – The colours in opal display many similar patterns even though they may be slightly different from the other. Below is a list of some common and rare patterns found in opal.

Common patterns- Floral – Flagstone – Chaff – Pinfire – Broad flash – Moss - Rolling flash

Rare patterns- Harlequin – Script – Mackerel – Ribbon

Colour – The colours (fire) that show in the play of colour and pattern on the opal face. Opal can come in all colours of the rainbow.

Body tone – The shades or tones between black and white of the opal face. These shades are represented by the body tone scale that range from N1 to N9. N1 being the darkest black and N9 being the lightest white.

N1-N2-N3-N4 are considered as black opal

N5-N6 are considered as dark opal

N7-N8-N9 are considered as white opal

Brightness – The overall brightness of the colours in an opal when exposed to direct sunlight and when the opal is rotated in all directions. The brightness of an opal is represented the brightness scale that ranges from B5 to B1.

B5 Vivid – B4 Very bright – B3 Bright – B2 Moderately bright – B1 Subdued

Shape or cut - The shape of the opal after being cut and polished from rough gemstone. Freeform shapes are one of the most common ways to cut an opal and is dictated by the natural shape of the opal inside an untouched rough gemstone. Below is a list of some common shapes opals are cut in.

Freeform – Oval – Circle – Teardrop – Triangle – Square – Rectangle – Cushion

Weight - The total weight of a finished opal after cutting and polishing in carats (ct).

Dome hight – The hight of the dome on the top face of the opal relevant to its size and shape specified by Low - Medium - High.

Size and dimensions – (Length-Width-Hight) The three-dimensional measurements of the opal in millimetres (mm).

Note: Since there is no governed standard on specifying the body tone and brightness of opal, we have adopted the worldly accepted and most accurate method in the opal community to specify the body tone and brightness of our opal.