Ships from Tucson, Arizona. This piece is held in our United States warehouse and can only be delivered within the United States.
One of a kind
Every carving is cut from its own block of rough. The photographs on this page show the exact piece you will receive — not a sample from the same batch.
Natural stone, untreated
100% natural stone, never dyed or reconstituted. Veins, inclusions and small shifts in colour are how the material formed; they are marks of origin rather than faults.
Carved by hand
Cut, shaped and polished by hand. Proportions differ a little from piece to piece because each one follows the block it came out of.
Checked and packed
Hand-inspected before dispatch and shipped in shockproof packaging.
What It Contains
Opal's water content gives it a traditional association with emotion and with what a person is holding rather than showing.
Kept somewhere with normal humidity, not beside a radiator.
Many Things at Once
Its shifting colour has long been read as an argument that a thing can be several things depending on where you stand.
Turn it rather than displaying it fixed.
Genuine Fragility
At 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale and full of water, opal wants more care than the quartz it sits beside.
Store it away from other stones, not among them.
Carrying Other Things
Traditionally credited with intensifying whatever state a person brings to it rather than supplying one.
Reached for deliberately rather than kept out by default.
Why We Carve Skulls
The skull is the oldest symbol of transformation: what remains, what endures, what is left when everything temporary has gone. Carved in stone it reads less as death and more as clarity.
Turn it to face you when you want to be honest; turn it outward when you want to be left alone.