Our Story
My name is Justine, I have been processing, cutting, polishing and selling opal for nearly 30 years, and 27 years as a professional opal carver. 15 years experience at designing unique silver jewellery pieces. I have won several professional International awards for carving and jewellery design.
In 2009, as part of a partnership,we bought an opal shop in Lightning Ridge, The Opal Bin, and created this website Classic Opals so that we could bring our opals and designs to you AT THE BEST PRICES. In 2020 I branched out on my own.
Our Opals and Jewellery
Mining for opals in Lightning Ridge is HARD work! The expense of keeping up the equipment, the fuel costs, the hours, days and weeks of digging and washing dirt in the hope of finding even just a few opals can be heartbreaking, it can also be exillerating when some good opal is found...and that is what keeps them going. Miners deal with successes and hardships, sometimes drilling in the searing heat of summer looking for new opal fields, and sometimes mining for months with no success.
Our jewellery is crafted by extremely talented artists, master jewellers, who have regularly exhibited in galleries and exhibitions. They create amazing high quality pieces, following my designs, which I feel compliment my opals.
I am happy to design and have made, a piece to your specifications to show off the Opal you love.
We are, of course, limited in the amount of pieces we can show on the website, so when you come to Lightning Ridge, do come and visit the shop – THE OPAL BIN. You will see the best display of Black Opals in the world and you will be delighted with the CHOICES AND PRICES offered, and if you tell us you have visited our website we will be happy to give you a discount.
If you are not planning to travel to Lightning Ridge just yet, why not send us your email address and we will inform you when new pieces are added to the website – giving you the first option to discover the Opal and/or jewellery you love. If you have a special piece in mind, please email us and describe what you want, we are happy to send you photos/videos of specific pieces, or more stones within your price range.
When you visit THE OPAL BIN, we are always happy to advise you of the wonderfully interesting things Lightning Ridge has to offer our visitors.
If you would like any further information from us please do not hesitate to contact Justine via phone, email opalbin@yahoo.com.au. She will be happy to help you with any request.