Black Opal Pendant – Sterling Silver, 17×8mm, Light Body, Bright Green Flash

An elongated triangle of Australian black opal — 17×8mm and slim enough to catch the eye before you've even focused on it — bezel-set in sterling silver and hung from a 45cm rhodium-plated chain. The stone carries a light body tone that lets colour travel through it rather than reflect off it: tilt it one way and a bright green fires up clean and clear, tilt it again and the flash shifts across the face in that liquid way only solid opal does. Light body doesn't mean less opal — it means the colour lives inside the stone, glowing with a translucent depth that darker stones simply can't replicate. Sits neatly at the collarbone. Wears well every day.

About Black Opal

Black opal is the rarest and most sought-after variety of Australian opal, mined almost exclusively from Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. Its defining feature is body tone — the darkness of the stone's base, which acts as a backdrop for the colour play above it. At the darker end of the scale, body tone creates vivid, high-contrast flashes. Crystal and light black opals sit at the lighter end: their body tone is still classified within the black opal range, but it's translucent or semi-translucent rather than opaque. This gives the colour a different quality — not the bold drama of a dark black, but a glowing, lit-from-within depth that can be just as striking, and is prized in its own right by collectors who understand what they're looking at. Lightning Ridge light body opals with strong brightness are genuinely rare and increasingly hard to find.

Specifications

• Stone: Solid Australian Black Opal (natural, untreated)
• Dimensions: 17×8mm
• Colour Play: Bright green flash, mixed pattern
• Body Tone: Light
• Brightness: Bright
• Pattern: Mixed
• Shape: Elongated triangle
• Setting: Sterling Silver, bezel
• Chain: Rhodium-plated, 45cm
• Origin: Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia
• Availability: One-of-a-kind — 1 piece available

Caring for Your Opal

See Opal Care for storage, cleaning, and what to avoid.

Provenance

Hand-selected by Joseph Bernecki, sourced direct from the Australian opal fields and set in his Sydney workshop. Meet him any weekend at The Rocks Market, stall under the bridge, Sydney. Read Joseph's story →

Common Questions

This is a one-of-a-kind piece. Once sold, it cannot be replicated. Every opal at Rocks On The Rocks is hand-selected by Joseph for its individual character and quality.