Gemstone Jewelry Designer

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

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

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.

Wrapping Gemstone Jewelry by Cindy Fess

H7694 Vogue Bridal Blue Gemstone CZ Round Design Necklace Earrings Set Jewelry $0.01

H7621 Modern Bridal Gemstone CZ Butterfly Design Necklace Earrings Set Jewelry $0.01

H8354 Lady Wedding Gemstone jewelry Flower Design Necklace Earrings set Fashion $0.01

H8304 Xmas Modern Green Butterfly Design Jewelry Gemstone Necklace Earrings set $0.01

H8353 Women Wedding Gemstone jewelry Flower Design Necklace Earrings set Fashion $0.01

H9031 Modern Wedding Gemstone crown Design Necklace Earrings set Fashion Jewelry $0.01

H8364 Lady’s Suoerb Gemstone Flower Design Necklace Earrings Set Fashion Jewelry $0.01

H7493 Women’s Fashion Design Gemstone Jewelry Necklace Pendant Earrings Set Hot $0.01

r9098 Size 8 Engagemet Yellow Design GP Diamante Gemstone Ring Jewelry Fashion $0.01

r9097 Size 6.5 Lady’s Yellow Designer Diamante Gemstone Ring CZ Jewelry Fashion $0.01