QuestionQUESTION: I come from afamily where almos everybody is an Artist. We carve/ engrave soapstones in back our homeland - Kisii in Kenya. Now I live in Tsavo where agreat variety of garnte is mined and I have alot of cut stones which I would like to amount on silver. Where can I order silver settings (not sure of this right word )rings, pendants, rings which I only need to amount the stones?. I am looking at whole sale price. Thanks, Okeno.
ANSWER: Hello Okeno,
Sounds like you have access to quite a treasure as Tsavorite garnets command quite a high price in the Us and UK markets. One tip you may want to consider is selling your loose stones on an online auction site like Ebay.There you set the price required for postage and then you can elect to put a minimum price ( reserve) that you will accept for the loose stones or you can put a "NR" or no reserve auction on the site. I guarantee you people are hungry for both already cut and faceted, or cabochons and rough uncut gem material. You will sell all you care to at the price you name and in the amount of time you set the auction to run for or you can put a buy it now price on them and people will pay what you are asking. Tsavorite is at a premium right now. Wish I had more than the few I have been saving for a year now!
Now for your question: I believe what you are looking for are called "snap-tite" settings, you simply place the stone, table down, on a soft surface ( padded with anything from cloth to a sheet of rubber or what have you to cushion and protect the stone from chipping) and press down then tighten the prongs with a pair of pliers that are modified by making a groove down the center ( if you want to get fancy) to accommodate the prong's finish so no further polishing has to be done.Some of them have tabs in the back which you simply push down to set the stone in place on rings and pendants where the stones are set from the back, and others have bezels with tabs in all styles - from earrings, and drops, to rings, pendants, bracelets, etc. - anything you want.
Silver is available at CGM findings, in the largest assortment of styles. They also sell gold filled which is not electroplated thin film of gold , but 5gold bonded to a base metal so it won't simply rub off easily or quickly particularly on pendants and earrings that don't get knocked around as much as rings do.Even though gold filled ( the international mark is 14/20 GF) is cheaper than pure gold it is the perceived value that is becoming more acceptable with gold markets being around $989.00 an ounce for the daily spot price ( if you like , you can check daily prices of silver and gold, palladium- a platinum metal, and platinum at http://www.kitco.com.As of a day ago silver was at $18.69 an ounce- very high for silver!
If you start your own website to sell your Tsavorite garnets and mounted jewelry they will let you put their spot market charts on your site free of charge, which ads a professional, international feel to a website- and I highly recommend you DO begin your own website and sell Tsavorite. A name beginning with "A" like "All Tsavorite.com" would show up at the top of a search engine.I guarantee with your resource for the gems being right there in Tsavo you would prosper almost as soon as you got your SEO (that stands for: search engine optimization - words that help people globally find your site!) set up and the website online ( a hosting service like 1and1.com is international, easy and cheap.It gives you a free website with the registration of a domain name or for a bit more - a monthly charge you can have an e-commerce store in about a day!-I don't work for them at all but can refer you there also as they offer some really good deals and as I said are international).Truly, you have access to one of the most popular stones all jewelry designers want right now.On www.ganoksin.com, the Orchid forum, you could introduce yourself to a community of worldwide professional jewelry makers directly and sell all you can manage to get your hands on!
There are a number of companies that sell snap in findings- I don't know how many of them send internationally but here's a very partial list:
* Hoover and Strong Richmond VA USA - they are a true wholesaler and have a few snap-tite findings
* Cookson's UK
* CGM Findings www.cgmfindings.com- this company has the largest selection of snap in settings and other things that mount easily in sterling and fine silver and high karat golds
* Romanoff International Supply USA
* Indian Jewelers Supply USA
* Rio Grande USA
* Bloomenstien's -www.bloomensteins.co.uk
* JewelrySupply.com - they do ship internationally and have what they call "snap & set" findings. If you want to use them I can "refer you " and I believe they give you a discount over their standard prices.They guarantee International shipments in 3-5 days, but their prices are mid-range of wholesale.
There are many, many sellers www.metalcyberspace.com has an extensive listing of links to jewelry suppliers. If you have any trouble whatsoever in ordering from any US companies write me back and we can arrange to have them sent to me and then I will post them to you ( of course you would have to pay the postage, but there are flat rate services and findings will fit into the smallest package at the lowest cost . I recently sent something to the UK as it saved the person over $150.00 from the UK price and the postage was $11.95 flat rate to Great Britain.To Kenya the cost is $9.85 for regular first class mail, and 22.00 up for 6-10 day flat rate international priority mail up to 1 kilogram via the USPS (US postal Service)and a whopping $86.99 US Dollars for an overnight delivery!Keep that in mind when negotiating with sellers to ship to you in Kenya as those are the current posted US prices from the postal service calculator as of today.
With your talents and family background as artisans, and your access to Tsavorite garnets, and apparent business acumen you should be a great success.Do write to me if you need any more help with anything from finding -findings, to setting up your own business. I will be happy to help Okeno.
Best wishes for health and happiness
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QUESTION: Do you think buying Silver from China or India is more cheaper than buying from US?.Thanks,
Okeno.
ANSWER: Hello Again Okeno,
In theory yes, it is cheaper to buy Silver from Indian Dealers than US dealers as some Indian sellers , particularly small jewelry supply shops sell off inventory they bought before the price of Ag (silver) went up to the $17.34 USD (daily spot price) the market bears and higher than that in past months.Similarly Au (gold) closing today at $928.40 USD has been quite inflated since this time last year. Both metals will probably hold high prices for another 16 months when I personally expect them to go lower with the delivery to market of new ventures that just began producing in the last two months in South America and other locations).But more importantly the exchange rates are the key to saving the most money. For example as of today the exchange rate for Indian rupees to US dollars is 42+ rupees equaling 1 US dollar, and the Chinese Yuan is at 6.81 Yuan's to 1 USD. South African Rands are 7.59 to 1 USD.
The real savings would perhaps be to compare the silver spot prices for each country then make a decision based on the access you have to purchasing from a desired country and the access you have to currency exchange facilities ( any bank should be able to assist you in that type of transaction and then electronically or by cashiers cheque getting the funds to your seller). Even If you were to have a source in India that could buy for you, you would not save money as the spot price of silver is higher by a few cents over the US price unless you had a friend that knew of a particular store selling their findings at a lower price than the market quote.
Today the silver spot for India is 731.05 rupees , given the exchange rate at 42.16 rupees to one USD that equals about $17.39 an ounce in US Dollars.Japanese yen is the lowest valued currency in world currency trading at present .Given today's exchange rate and silver on the Japanese market the cost comes out to be $17.34 per ounce, so you would be saving pennies even though it takes more yen to equal the US dollar.
It's all a matter of calculating the exchange rate and spot prices daily for each country while having your sources in place and ready to place orders or go to a market or stall in a bazzar on a given day to buy for you that you could save the most.In general though you will find the savings marginal in raw materials as most dealers of raw materials ( silver sheet, wire, casting grain, etc) base your cost on the daily spot price on the day the order is received, and similarly if you were to make a return of a product and the spot that day was lower than the day you ordered the item(s) you would loose money as they would give you credit based on that particular day they receive your returned merchandise. That is fairly standard worldwide policy regarding the sale and return of precious metals.
Findings however, being stocked by more sellers than dealers in raw materials ( like bead stores,jewelry making suppliers and craft dealers that do not actually fabricate the wares , etc.)may have a 100% money back guarantee regardless of what they have sold you.Read each seller's catalogue's written policies or online ordering information BEFORE you order so if you get an item or product that you are not totally happy with you can return it and get all of the money you spent on it returned to you ( most will not refund postage, some rare exceptions can be found though!).
So I hope that explains the way buying precious metals works and the way currencies and exchange rates can show differences over the market in a given country though are more trouble to access than the amount of savings ( in general) that you will realize! If you were buying large quantities though- say you got all the silversmiths in your town to do a group buy that is let you place the order for everyone, you would all save money as every seller I know offers discounts that increase with the quantity overall purchased. For example some dealers offer a 10% discount with buying 1-5 ounces of silver, 15% with 6-10 ounces and so on until you reach the 25-50 ounce quantities at which point the savings are great and worth everyones while to buy metals as a group or collective. In fact you can set up groups expressly for that purpose and the way you would profit for placing the orders and delivering each person's products would be to charge a "membership fee" to participate in the group. You would produce the order forms to distribute ( and then control what they could buy like sheet in which gauges, wire in which styles, casting grain in which colours ( for golds) ,fine or sterling or argentium silver products and what ever else you would elect to provide based on the materials your group members use in their art.
If I can be of further assistance don't hesitate to write !By the way are you in the east or west of Tsavo?
Best regards
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Dr Ari Roark,
I need your help again, we have a stone which have the ability to change color from green - in the day light to red in candle light. Some people call this Alexandrite and others color change garnet.Do we have such garnet? can I get a piece I send to you for check up?. Thanks in advance. Okeno from Tsavo, Kenya
AnswerHello Again Okeno
You are right, there are more than one variety of gemstone that changes colors. Alexandrites being the highest valued, unless they are Czechoslovakian "Choralski" lab created stones, which are far more common and far cheaper than the real thing. there are also varieties of garnets as you said, and even some tourmalines, and rare stones.They are all considered "plechroic" that means changing or having more than one colour that is seen in various light situations.
Green to red is a fairly common change a few stones demonstrate - alexandrite being one and even then it can vary from green or greenish brown to red or sometimes red violet in hue. I could explain how to set up a specific gravity testing station but it would take alot of time, and then you could refine your equipment by adding some tools like a Chelsea filter, and a long/short wave UV lamp ( blacklight bulbs work for this and are far more inexpensive than one sold through a jewelry supplier!), a simple microscope with coloured gels, and some other relatively inexpensive tools and equipment so that you could set up your own "mini-lab" that would give you some degree of accuracy without a major investment- no matter what anyone tells you, you can do many tests cheaply with things found easily.One does not have to spend a fortune on equipment made for professionals in business to conduct many tests.Nonetheless,if you like you can send me a stone and I'll test it and generate a full appraisal for you free of charge. If you want the stone returned, I will certainly return it just make sure to send your return address enclosed with the sample. To avoid giving out my private email on this site please write to me at vieuxcarrejewelers@gmail.com and we can talk about sending it through the postal services over a long distance a bit more privately.I will await your email.I am very happy to assist you as I know you are in the crossroads of access to many world class gemstones being mined and traded and I want you to get the full worth of anything you may come across, as there are many unscrupulous dealers in the world that will take advantage of novice or lesser experienced jewelers. Let's not let that happen! I do wish I were closer to where you are though to see some of the treasures abounding in your part of the world!
Take care of yourself and with best regards,Ari
