Where do jewelry designers get the jewels from to make their creations?

Question

Is there like a gemstone store where you can just go and pick out what you need to make your designs?

Answer 1

This is very broad question, because there are a lot of types of jewelry and each type require a different approach. I will try to cover 3 most common ones:

1. Costume jewelry ( or fashion jewelry) - this jewelry is made of less valuable materials, including glass, plastic, and synthetic stones. These items are usually inexpensive and often flashy. Costume jewelry is mainly used for fashion purposes, opposed to precious jewelry which may exist primary as collectables or investments. To design and make costume jewelry you will need a book on jewelry design, beads and metal findings.

Book: Costume Jewelry: A Practical Handbook & Value Guide (Hardcover) by Fred Razazadeh ISBN: 1574320130

Materials shop: Harlequin Beads & Jewelry at http://www.harlequinbeads.com/
Typical costume jeweler: http://www.costumejewelry.com/

2. Fine diamond jewelry - this jewelry is made of precious metals including gold, platinum, titanium and loose diamonds. The simplest way is to mount loose diamonds to the standard setting/mounting design, such as solitary ring, engagement ring, eternity ring or studs. This kind of jewelry is widely available at the Internet shops, because it's very easy to make and doesn't require a lot of knowledge or experience. To design and make such jewelry you will need Stuller's settings/mountings catalog and a source of loose diamonds and basically your design will depend on size of diamonds you want to fit and setting/mounting design you select.

Settings and mountings shop: Stuller Inc at http://www.stuller.com/
Loose diamonds shop: http://www.diamondsafe.com/
Typical diamond jeweler: http://www.diamond.com/

3. Fine gemstone jewelry - this jewelry is made of precious metals including silver, gold, platinum, titanium and color stones, such as rubies, sapphires, emeralds, tourmalines, aquamarines, topaz, etc. This is the most creative, hard-to-make, hard-to-find, beautiful, personal and valuable jewelry. Usually, instead of standard settings a custom design is used, where metal parts are made using a method called wax casting. In this process, a wax (or sometimes plastic) mold is used to create a piece of jewelry. This wax mold, called a pattern, is first weighed so the amount of metal required to fill the mold (gold, silver, etc.) can be determined. Then the mold is attached to a base, and a flask is fit over the base. Once the mold is in the flask, a kind of plaster that looks like pan cake batter, called investment, is mixed up, put in a vacuum to get all the air bubbles out of it, and then poured into the flask. It is then left to dry and harden. Once the investment is dried, the base and flask are removed. Now the piece is put into an oven to burn out the wax. Next a centrifuge is used to force the melted metal into the investment mold. Finally, the piece is cleaned up by filing and polishing it.

Most good quality gemstone jewelry come in limited editions/collections, because it's very difficult to secure the source of colour stones. In case of expensive single color stones, the jewelry piece will be truly unique. In fine gemstone jewelry diamonds are used as side stones, to accent the beauty of the color stone. To design and make such jewelry you will need few reliable loose color stones sources, and then you can use either standard Stuller's settings or cast your own designs:

Single gemstones shop: Multicolour Gems Ltd at http://www.multicolour.com/
Various gemstones shop: Icgems Ltd at http://www.icgems.com/
Calibrated gemstones shop: China Stone Ltd at http://www.echinastone.com/
( use them instead of Signity, you will safe a lot!)

I will also recommend to visit Fameo jewelry boutique at http://www.fameo.co.uk/ and examine their jewelry designs, which are incredibly detailed and provide very in depth specification of materials.

Answer 2

Links- London aaaaaah D&G Jewels

Answer 3

It depends on what types of gemstones you are using, where you live, and how high the quality of the gemstones needs to be. If you are stringing them like beads, try firemountaingems.com. They have one store, but the catalog is exhaustive. Other wise, there are gem faires that travel the U.S., check with your local beading or crafts stores for dates and times.

Answer 4

They're too expensive to buy in any quantity in a retail store, but wholesale places have minumums ($50 and up). Why not do a search online for "gemstones" in your area, you'll probably find both retail and wholesale.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

they get these design from the designers abroad or they just copy some part of the design either on dress or some other thing

Answer 7

Try http://www.riogrande.com
They market to the trade, but they're also accessible to the skilled amateur.

Answer 8

REAL diamonds come from africa