making gemstone jewelery

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but nowhere else seemed appropriate...

I have some loose gemstones that I would love to make into jewelery, especially earrings. The problem is that I cant seem to find anything to set the gems in to hold em If anyone can tell me any websites that sells things to make real jewelery, Id really appriciate it!

hi, i make jewellery so hopefully i can give you a bit of advice.

do they have any thread holes, are they raw and unpolished, cabochons or tumbled gems?

if they have thread holes then you can use a headpin which is a short strong piece of wire with a flattened bit at one end to stop them falling off.

if they are cabochons then you can wire wrap them, or purchase cabochon fittings that the stone snaps into and stays in place.

raw or tumbled stones can be wire wrapped again, or placed into a small wire spiral cage which keeps them in place and you can take them out and swap them around.

jue xx

No, they dont have holes. They are cut gems (like emerald, ruby, etc). What are cabochons?

Hi TheBip,

I used to go to a local jewellery making class run by the University here years ago but I haven't made any jewellery for an absolutle age.

Cabochons are stones that have been cut to have one flat side and one rounded side (so no cut facets).
This is what the dictionary says: 'a precious stone of convex hemispherical or oval form, polished but not cut into facets.'

I've attached a picture of an amber ring set with a cabochon stone to show you what I mean.

oh, ok. theyre not those then, they have facets.

you need to take your stones to a professional jeweller. hopefully they can be easily mounted in industry standard settings. if they are an odd cut and size, custom mountings may be required.
these findings are generally available only to people in the trade but even if you can buy of few of them yourself, you have no skill in mounting stones or assessing the correct mount to buy.

You may want to consider taking them to a jeweler if they are good quality gems, and have them set, and then designing something with them - possibly adding other beads/crystals/etc.

Maybe even doing a silver jewelry workshop or silver clay jewelry workshop - but all these options incurr costs.

I use semi precious stones (natural and shaped or polished) with gold plated wire to keep them caged if they dont have a hole in them or they are a difficult shape - though these range from large to small - and arent as expensive as gems. Example below.

Blessings Elven x

If your gemstones are standard sizes (usually measured in mm) you can buy all shapes and sizes of silver or gold-plated settings - they go by the trade-name Snap-tite. Do a quick search on eBay to see the variety of earring and pendant settings available. Two of the biggest sellers are in the US, so they should be easy to get. They're very simple to put together - you just snap the stone into place!

Check out FireMountainGems.com

The Fire Mountain Gem company will send you this absolutely huge free catalog on request...it contains all the settingsand findings (in every kind of metal) you could possibly need to make jewelry with just about any kind of gem, or stone that you have.

and you can order as much...or as little as you want!

Thank you guys -so- much! Ill definately check out everything ya'll mentioned