KATHERINE JETTER

18K White gold Sweetpea Flower Earrings with
Pink Sapphires and Diamonds

Tropical temperatures and an energetic night life characterize Darwin, Australia a small but captivating city with a multi-cultural population. 

Australia is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Katherine Jetter.

Jewelers often allow materials to dictate a design.  Many times a jeweler builds a bangle bracelet or ring design around a specific gemstone. 

For Jetter opals are her muse.  The designer’s infectious fascination with the stunning opal gemstone is an impassioned effort to erase the gem’s unfortunate reputation. 

Not only are Australian opals including gorgeous Coober Pedy White Opal, and Lightning Ridge Black Opal highlighted in Jetter’s nature-inspired fine jewelry collections but also Mexican Anhydrous Opal and Peruvian Opal.

Jetter’s steadfast devotion to the opal began thirteen years ago, in 2001, when her parents gifted to her a blue, Australian opal after she won an acclaimed art prize.  Jetter designed a “simple elegant ring setting” for the stone, and later earned certification as a gemologist and jewelry designer from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

Upon settling in Sante Fe, New Mexico Jetter is dedicated to showcasing the lavish, hypnotic colors of these magnificent gemstones in contemporary designs.

“I have made it my goal to restore Australian opal to a place of prominence and importance in the world of fine jewelry.  

Until recently Australian opal miners were suffering due largely to little unity amongst opal miners.  There was no collective strategy on how these stones should be distributed to maximize the power of the miners.

This is gradually changing, however.  An Opal Producers Australia Limited (OPAL) formed in 2004.  The goal is to form an association of miners who pool their opal resources to sell as a unified team,” explains the 30-year-old jeweler.

18K Gold Dinosaur Tooth Pendant with Moonstone
and Diamonds

“The opal developed an unlucky reputation due to Sir Walter Scott’s novel Anne of Geierstein. An opal that signals well-being by changing color is worn by the character Lady Hermione.

She takes ill and dies.  The damage was done until people learned that Queen Victoria kept an impressive collection of opals during her reign.

Unfortunately diamond merchants of Hatton Garden started a smear campaign to restore the opal’s reputation as unlucky due to its rising popularity. 

I want to show that opals are exciting by bringing them to life in fresh and contemporary designs.  I select quality opals cutting them into sleek geometric shapes and sophisticated forms.

I am inspired by Australia’s natural landscapes.  My signature collection is a tribute to the lush Daintree Forest.  The color palette of each collection embraces the deep blues of the endless Australian Outback sky.  This is an exciting new era for this exquisite gemstone.”

18K Gold Twisting Vine Ring with
Lightning Ridge Opal and Diamonds

2014 Jewelry Trend Alert:  Mythical spirituality is signified through fiery reds and ocean blues this year, and the relentless colors of Jetter’s opal jewelry creations take this trend to the highest level.