Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin And Adrianne Bortnick.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Adrianne and I (Justin ) run Cosmic Opals together, and in many ways, the business grew out of our relationship, our family, and our shared love of discovery.
My story with opals began when I was sixteen and traveled to Australia with my mom. She was in recovery at the time, and I went with her to a meeting where I met an old opal miner named Cedric. At one point, he told me he had something worth more than $100,000 in his pocket. I thought he was joking, but then he opened his hand and showed me a black opal with the most incredible red fire I had ever seen. It looked like the stone was glowing from within. That moment completely captured my imagination.
For us, Cosmic Opals is not just a business. It is something my wife and I have built together, shaped by family, creativity, adventure, and a shared desire to inspire the next generation of rockhounds.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. We’ve been in business for about twelve years now, and it has been a real ebb and flow.
In the beginning, a big part of our focus was making beautiful opals accessible. Ethiopian opal really opened that door for a lot of people, because it allowed us to offer incredible color and character at prices that were much more approachable than some of the traditional Australian material.
But over time, the business changed. The availability, pricing, and consistency of stones shifted, and we also started feeling pulled toward something deeper than just buying and selling. We wanted to understand the material from the ground up, literally. That meant mining our own stones, learning how to find gems and minerals in the wild, and building the skills to cut and finish them ourselves.
That pivot has been one of the biggest challenges. Mining is not easy. It takes patience, physical work, a lot of trial and error, and a willingness to come home empty-handed sometimes, but still not giving up until the end of the day. Learning how to spot good material, work safely, cut efficiently, and turn rough stone into something beautiful has taken years.
But that struggle is also what has made the journey meaningful. We’re not just selling stones anymore. We’re learning the land, building a family tradition, and trying to become better rockhounds, miners, and lapidary artists every year.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about CosmicOpals ?
CosmicOpals is a small independent opal shop based in Santa Cruz, California. We’ve been hand-cutting and collecting opals for over 20 years; we buy and mine rough opal directly from miners around the world, and every single piece in the shop is cut, polished, and photographed by us, in-house. Nothing is mass-produced and no two stones are alike: rough Australian and Ethiopian parcels, hand-carved opal sculptures, fossil opal, wire-wrapped silver pendants, and one-of-a-kind finished pieces.
What we specialize in, and what we’re known for, is honesty about the stone. We’ll tell you exactly what’s in a piece, including the flaws: the sand, the cracks, the matrix. All of our opal is ethically sourced, and our Ethiopian rough goes through proper verification to ensure it was mined by the mine’s owners and correctly exported. That transparency is why we’ve been a Star Seller on Etsy for over a decade, with a 4.8-star average across more than 900 reviews and a community of nearly 140,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram.
What sets us apart is that when you buy from CosmicOpals, you’re buying from the actual cutter. There’s no middleman and no marketing team, just someone who has spent 20 years learning what makes each stone special, and who’s quick to answer questions in detail, take on custom commissions, and occasionally tuck a little extra gift into an order.
But what we’re most proud of is the brand we’ve built around inspiring people to pursue their life passions and to be creative and unique. Opal rewards that way of living ; every stone is different, and the fire in it only shows when you take the time to really look. Whether someone comes to us for their first rough parcel to learn cutting, a carved piece that stops them in their tracks, or a stone that marks a moment in their life, we want them to walk away reminded that the best things “in stone and in life” come from patience, curiosity, and doing what you love. We’d love for your readers to come see what we mean: find us on Etsy, Instagram, and Facebook at @cosmicopals.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success to us is the wonder in a child’s eyes the first time they hold an opal. It’s someone finding a stone they can’t wait to share with the people they love. After twenty-some years of cutting, the sales numbers and reviews are nice; but those moments are the real measure. Every opal is one of a kind, and watching someone discover the one that’s theirs never gets old. In the end, success is a day where you’re inspired by your own creativity and uniqueness to pursue who you are. If we can help spark that in somebody, that’s a good day at the shop.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://CosmicOpals.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/cosmicopals
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/@cosmicopals
