If you've ever seen an opal, you know it's magic is not hidden to the naked eye. Throughout history, opal has been regarded as the luckiest, most magical of all gems because it can show all colors in it's impressive flash.

We consider ourselves quite lucky when it comes to opals as well. Seth's uncle has been infatuated with and cutting opals for decades. He gifted us the first few opals we made into jewelry and ever since lets us see his batches of freshly cut opals before making them available to the public, which means we get the best of the best. One of my favorite things to do when we visit Uncle Keith is look through his little bucket of raw opal and spray the rough looking rocks with water to see the colorful veins of opal peaking through.

As October's birthstone, opal is valued for its shifting colors in rainbow hues ─ a phenomenon known as "play-of-color." This kaleidoscopic gemstone is most predominantly mined in the Australian outback. The occurrence of the play-of-color is due to the formation of the stone itself. Lightwaves travel between sub-microscopic spheres, bending and diffracting the light ─ breaking up into colors of the rainbow.

From ancient Rome to Arabic legend, the opal has represented love, hope, purity, protection, truth and luck to countless cultures. Due to it's dramatic color story, the Bedouins once believed opals held lightning and actually fell from the sky during thunderstorms. This majestic gemstone was believed to embody the virtues and powers of all colored stones with it's vast array of colors. This is one of our first opal pieces which especially reminds me of the lightning!