The World's Most Useful Gem & Jewelry Monthly Newsletter
Written by Carolyn Doyle for customers of The Dorado Company and other visitors to the
azgem.com website who subscribe.
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Usable Gems... and a little opinion.
Making Gemstone Stud
Earrings
Making gemstone stud earrings is the subject of
this month's newsletter. Specifically, I'll walk you through how we at The
Dorado Company custom manufacture our popular gemstone stud
earrings.
I say we because I just could not do it alone. I
rely on reputable vendors to supply the components necessary to produce quality
jewelry.
These gemstone stud earrings have been sold online to
individual customers, to our jewelry
dealers, and direct to jewelry shops for several years now.
They are popular for several reasons, including:
Quality
Simplicity
Selection
Price
Our gemstone stud earrings are priced low... but
they're not cheap!
As we walk through the manufacturing process, you'll see
how each of these points plays a key role in the success of our gemstone
stud earrings.
The process begins with selecting the right vendors. I
don't have employees, it's just my husband and I here.
So when I need more earrings, I look to vendors who supply
quality components and services at a fair price.
The gemstones come first, naturally. Our custom gem
cutters just aren't able to provide us with the number of stones we need for our
gemstone earrings, so I look to volume cutting houses.
Our custom cutters facet gems a few pieces at a time,
working with the gem rough we provide to them. The finished gems they cut are
individuals.
When manufacturing gemstone earrings we require consistent
color and quality gems... in volume. We need hundreds of each gem.
We meet a few of these volume gem cutters at gem trade shows.
Here we can judge the consistency of their gems' color, the clarity of the gems,
and the quality of the cutting.
Machine cut stones with superior final polish are
what we require. Machine cut gems all have the same dimensions, and this
attribute becomes critical when the gems are mounted.
Jewelry findings are the next item of interest.
What are jewelry findings? Those are the metal components of a piece of
jewelry. In this case it's a basket head with four prongs, on a post (and a
friction back fastener)... all in 14 kt. yellow gold.
There are several quality findings manufacturers across
the USA. I happen to use the largest one. I might be able to beat their price,
but not their quality and service.
Most findings houses offer price breaks when you buy in
quantity. So to help keep the price down we buy in quantity... large
quantity.
The price of wholesale gold jewelry findings rises and
falls with the international gold market. The price has been well over $400 per
ounce for many months now.
Putting the earrings together comes next. We use a
couple of local craftsmen to mount the gems in the findings. We keep the
schedule reasonable by asking for completion of a few dozen at a time. They use
it as fill-in work and keep the price reasonable.
After that I do a final quality inspection , hand
matching, and packaging for delivery or shipment when you order.
There are two themes that run through the process you just
read... quality and price.
Quality is assured by selecting the right vendors,
insisting on their best, inspecting each item in each shipment, and rejecting
items that fall below the standard.
Price is achieved by buying in quantity. It's the only
acceptable way to keep the final price low. Jewelry shops buy our gemstone stud
earrings because... we can sell them a few pair for less than their cost
to make them in their shop.
We keep it simple by buying six colors of gemstone:
Purple amethyst (a gem quartz)
Red garnet
Orange-yellow citrine (another gem quartz)
Gold-green Oro Verde (another gem quartz)
Paraiba topaz (intense
blue-green color)
Blue topaz
These six gem colors provide a
selection of fashion colors. You can also get colorless, diamond
cut topaz upon request. We have the stones and findings in stock.
Another way we keep it simple is by
buying one style and size of finding.
Now all we have to do is keep selling
them, so we can continue to buy in quantity, so we can continue to sell
for less than other people's cost.
Father's Day and June wedding anniversaries are all but
here. These occasions
present great sales opportunities, as do birthdays and other special
days..
Check your inventory! Is it time to make up a few new
pieces? We have the gem stones you need and you already have the resource information to buy the
mountings and have the stones set.
Now is the time! Talk it up, and
make those sales.
jewelry shows are open in Las Vegas and the weather is great.