Reading a stone: opal, moonstone, aquamarine

Opal is valued for play-of-colour: flashes of green, blue and orange that shift as the stone moves. In a line bracelet of small cabochons, the charm is in how no two stones flash alike. Turn your wrist slowly under a single light and you will see it.

Moonstone shows adularescence — a soft, floating glow just under the surface. The tea and milk tones in our bead bracelets are warmer than the classic blue-white, and they read best against skin rather than on a white table.

Aquamarine is a pale blue beryl, prized for clarity. Faceted wheel beads catch light on their flat edges, which is why a strand that looks quiet in a photograph sparkles in person.

In every case, natural stones carry small inclusions and colour variation. We think of them as a fingerprint rather than a flaw: the piece you receive will be close to, but never identical with, the one in the photograph.