QuestionQUESTION: hi,
is it possible to make a living simply setting stones bought for the purpose, in bought settings?
ANSWER: not exactly sure of your question...you want to buy stones and set them in standard findings ..then selling them...first selling them to freinds etc..retail or trying to sell wholesale.....
cant imagine you could sell wholesale...with computers the trens far last years is totally eliminate middle-man...
if you want to sell to freind etc..yes its possible but you have to hustle...
ask again if this is not clear to you.
regards rolfe
PS and now remeber the recession
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: hi rolfe,
thanks, i haven't thought this out very much, it was just a preliminary enquiry to get some idea; i guess my best chance would be at craft fairs or similar. my idea was to take the standard pieces as you say & assemble them to add a little value. i was thinking of quite high-value stones & settings, eg ruby/sapphire in gold/silver.
don't mind if i don't make much on it, or if it's fairly slow selling, even if i have to wait a bit for sales, as you say owing to the recession.
AnswerOkay the secret here is to buy direct... and buying over the Internet is difficult because you're not holding the stones in your hand to examine... what you should do is pick out a few stones and become very knowledgeable in that particular stone..
for example the color... the cost per gram... your best sources..
it takes a while... unless you go to gemology school I would stay away from anything that is precious stones... like rubies and sapphires... unless you can really learn about them..
because if you're not an expert you will be taken to the cleaners..
and lose a lot of money.. start out with stones like turquoise..
lapis, amythist... there are so many that are inexpensive and look very nice... again just concentrate on a few... if you really take this seriously you should go to Gem shows... there you can go from one booth to another and compare prices on quality and hopefully you can set up a good contact to buy in the future.... if you really want to be adventurous some, and get into this seriously I think from the UK you should go to India... there you will buy direct
at the best price... your idea about craft shows is very good..
but you get simple go to only the cheap ones... it's easy to pay a lot of money and find out it really wasn't the show for you very discouraging... but these little weekly fairs... or beer celebrations whatever that are inexpensive or great....
also selling directly at these kind of fairs is actually a positive during a recession in that people still want to buy jewelry but they would need to get the best price..
hope this helps
