Opals
have been part of my (John's) life since I was a toddler. I remember
watching
my father sorting through opals to be sold. Mostly they were the
traditional
oval or round shapes popular at the time. But what interested me
was how the
colours changed when I moved the stone. Not only the colours
but also the
patterns changed completely. Little red splashes turned to orange
lights,
then yellow, to green and finally blue, no back to red again. The opal
that
looked like an emerald lake suddenly changed to an orange sunset?
That sort
of thing sticks in a kid's brain. Little
did I realise then that one day I would be mining my own opal and not just
mining
but, with Leanne, cutting and polishing the stunning Boulder Opal from
our
own Queensland mines.
Leanne has a background as a hairdresser and artist and
developed a love of opal
through her travels with John to the opal fields
throughout Australia. Our move to
full time opal mining was a natural outcome
of this passion.
For years Leanne was one of only four women working the Opalton
fields. When
we started mining we were selling the rough to other opal dealers. Then we
learned
how to cut and polish our own Boulder Opal as well as light and black opal
from
the other Australian fields. Now, we sometimes buy rough opal from other
Australian
miners to compliment our own. It was our view that most well designed opal jewellery
was highly priced and were routinely setinto conservative styles that hadn't changed
in years- we wanted to create unique chic opal jewellery both affordable and modern.
So we started to design our own. The
idea for each original design often starts in our mind as we are shaping the opal.
The individual
characteristics of each boulder opal inspire the shape. The design is an extension
of the uniqueness of the opal's shape, colours and pattern.
We are grateful
that our original handmade designs have been so well accepted.
Here
are some inages from our latest dig.....inspiration for some great new pieces! | 
