Your Questions, Answered

All our opals are sourced directly from small-scale Australian miners across fields including Lightning Ridge, Yowah, Coober Pedy, and more. We buy directly - no mass-market wholesalers, no mystery parcels. Just real people, real mines, and real stories.

Yes, always. Every opal we use is a solid or doublet natural Australian opal - never synthetic, never lab-made, never triplets.

We grade every opal on the Australian industry-standard B1–B5 brightness scale. B1 is the most subtle, B5 is the most vivid. Brightness is always listed in the product description so you know exactly what you're buying.

Find out more here: Opal Brightness Guide

Yes, with a little care. Put jewellery on after applying lotions or perfume, remove before swimming or heavy exercise, and avoid knocks. Opal is a natural gemstone gentle handling goes a long way.

Find out more here: How to Care for Australian Opal

Simply wipe with a soft, damp cloth. Mild soap is fine if needed. Avoid ultrasonic cleaners, steamers, harsh chemicals, or soaking. For sterling silver settings, a silver polishing cloth is safe - just avoid rubbing the opal itself.

Find out more here: How to Care for Australian Opal

Yes you can, Australian opal is non-porous so won't spoil in water. It doesn't need to be stored in water and it's fine if it gets wet; just dry it gently afterwards.

Find out more here: How to Care for Australian Opal

A doublet opal features a natural opal layer combined with its host rock - in our case, the opal remains naturally attached to the ironstone boulder it formed in, just as nature intended. This is quite different from commercially produced doublets, where a thin slice of opal is glued onto a backing material.

Because our doublets are naturally bonded to their host rock, they're more stable, more honest, and carry the full story of where they came from. The host rock also enhances the opal's colour play, often making the stone appear richer and more vivid.

A triplet is a composite stone made of three layers: a thin slice of natural opal sandwiched between a dark backing and a clear domed cap (usually glass or quartz). The cap magnifies the colour and the dark backing enhances it - but the actual opal content is very thin.

Triplets are widely used in the jewellery industry as a more affordable option, but they come with trade-offs: the layers can separate over time, they're sensitive to moisture, and they shouldn't be submerged in water.

At Georgie's Gem Studio, we don't use triplets. Every piece we make uses solid or naturally bonded doublet opal - so what you see is genuine, substantial opal, not an enhanced slice.

These are the main types of natural Australian opal, each with its own character:

Boulder opal forms within ironstone rock. Rather than being cut away from the host rock, the opal is left naturally attached - giving each stone a unique shape and a rich, dark backing that intensifies the colour play. Boulder opals are one-of-a-kind by nature.
Explore our Boulder Opals

Black opal has a dark body tone (grey to jet black) which makes the colours appear vivid and dramatic. Mined primarily at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, black opal is the rarest and most valuable type of Australian opal.

Crystal opal is transparent or semi-transparent, allowing light to pass through the stone. This gives it a glowing, almost luminous quality. Crystal opals can have any body tone and are prized for their depth and clarity of colour.
Explore our Crystal Opals

White opal (also called light opal) has a pale, milky body tone. The colours tend to be softer and more pastel compared to black opal, but a high-brightness white opal can still be stunning. White opal is the most widely available type and is often a great entry point for opal lovers.

It's one of the most common concerns about opals - and mostly a myth when it comes to Australian opal.

Crazing (a network of fine cracks that can appear in some opals) is almost exclusively associated with Ethiopian opals, which are porous and absorb water. When they dry out unevenly, they can craze. Australian opal is a completely different story.

Solid Australian opal (including the boulder, crystal, and white opals we use) is non-porous and naturally stable. It doesn't absorb water, doesn't dry out, and won't craze under normal conditions. Many Australian opals are millions of years old and still look exactly as they did when they came out of the ground.

That said, opal is a relatively soft gemstone (5.5–6.5 on the Mohs scale), so it can chip or scratch if knocked hard against a surface. A little mindful handling - avoiding drops and hard knocks - is all it takes to keep your piece looking beautiful for a lifetime.

All our jewellery is made with 925 sterling silver, which is stamped to confirm its purity. Some pieces are also available in 18k (or 18ct) gold plated sterling silver, for a warmer tone while retaining the quality of a solid silver base.

You may notice that our pieces don't carry a UK hallmark - this is perfectly normal. Under UK law, hallmarking is only compulsory for silver items above 7.78g, and many of our delicate pieces fall below this threshold. The 925 stamp on each piece is your assurance of the metal quality.

We also have some pendants that use silver tone bails, these bails are replaceable.

All jewellery pieces clearly state the metal purity for your reassurance.

Not at all - in fact, for most of history, opals were considered the luckiest gemstone of all. Ancient Romans called opal the "Queen of Gems" and believed it carried the power of every gemstone whose colour it reflected. In the Middle Ages, opal was thought to bring good fortune and protect eyesight.

The bad luck myth is largely traced to an 1829 novel by Sir Walter Scott, in which an opal plays a dramatic role in a fictional story. It was never based in fact - but the story stuck, and was reportedly so damaging to opal sales that rivals in the gem trade helped keep it alive.

In Australia, where the world's finest opals are found, opals are a source of national pride not superstition. And we at Georgie's Gem Studio think they're something to be celebrated, worn, and loved.