About Us

A Bit About Michael Ibanes & Opals From Australia ...

I am located on the Gold Coast in Australia and create low volume handmade jewellery as a hobby during my spare time.

Although I love working with all materials, metals and stones, I primarily like to design Australian opal based jewellery.  Some years ago I fell in love with our precious national gem, one of nature’s most beautiful creations.  I quickly developed a passion for cutting opals and decided to take it to the next step, learnt the art of making jewellery to create my own hand made settings for those beautiful gems.

The opals are taken from their original state out of the ground (Roughs) and worked towards the final product through precision cutting, shaping and polishing. By personal choice all opals used in the designed jewellery pieces are either Solid opals or carefully fabricated A grade Opal Doublets . A custom setting is then carefully and precisely hand made to house the beautiful opal.

I do not work with, use nor sell low grade Opal Doublets, Triplets or lab opals. REAL Solid Australian Opals are nowadays, very rare precious gems, wearing one can come at a very high cost depending on the type of opal. Some solid black Australian opals cost more per carat than Diamond. A lightly colored solid white opal is worth a lot more than a very colourful triplet. Boulder opals are still mined in quantity and still the most affordable type, but prices are on the rise as well.

The jewellery market is flooded with cheaper alternatives such as Opal Triplets & Lab Opals, very colourful, appealing and perfectly fine as long as you know what you are buying but too often miss leading people into thinking it is the real deal.
When buying Opal Jewellery pieces from this online store, you can be 100% sure that you are getting a REAL Australian Opal, a piece that we have handled and been involved with every step of the process, from the rough stone out of the ground to the finish item.

All products on this web sites are sold with minimum profit margin which is entirely re-invested to keep my Lapidary & Jewellery Making hobbies going so please take the opportunity to enjoy a high quality authentic Australian Opal at a bargain price.

Thank you for your support.

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