Buying Gemstones

I thought you might enjoy reading some of our more interesting and informative email exchanges. 

Aislyn - I have been an admirer of your website ever since I found it. Your pieces are absolutely beautiful and I hope that one day I can come up with designs of my own that are of your standard. But I have a question --as I am just starting out and have very limited capital to work with (primarily I am doing small custom-design orders at this point), where should I go (can I go) to find some of the precious and semi-precious stones? I have found a few sites (the best one is Migem) but they either have great prices and NO selection, or a great selection but the prices are WAY out of my range... Do you have any suggestions for me? Thanks in advance for any help that you can possibly give me. -- Adam
Adam, thanks for the kind comments about my jewelry, I appreciate it. *s* I buy all my stones from Migem. They are expensive but that whole getting what you pay for thing is definitely true when it comes to gemstones. I started out buying cheap stones, but ultimately decided it's truly not worth it because you end up wasting a lot of them and even those you can use limit the value of your finished work. Fine stones, on the other hand, dramatically enhance the value of your work.

My advice would be to look at your current work objectively and assess how good it is. If you honestly don't think you're ready to do justice to those high end stones, don't buy them yet... but don't buy low quality stones, either. Instead, buy stones that don't cost very much even for best quality. I used a lot of rock crystal and hematite while working to perfect my wrapped loops. Both are inexpensive, always drilled perfectly with pretty large holes so there's no waste, and both are really beautiful. People always love them and they're easy to work with. Before I felt like I could begin to do justice to the very spendy stones, I bought a lot from The Jewelweaver. The website requires some patience, but Andrea is really honest in her descriptions so you know exactly what you're getting and the prices are fair.

If, on the other hand, you are ready to do justice to those high end stones, Michelle of Migem is a sweetheart. She can be trusted and she'll work with you. If you'd like particular stones that aren't available in sample packs but can't afford to invest in a whole or half strand right now, just write to her and ask her if she can put those stones in a sample pack so you can get just a few. She's really good about doing that kind of thing and working with people.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. *s*