Where to buy small sapphires?

[SpartanRed]

Hello All,

I am trying to make a Sapphire Eternity Band as per my previous post. I have called a few of the recommend merchants here and it seems that smaller calibrated stones are not their specialty. I have been referred to two different sites: riogrande.com and africagems.com

Has anyone worked or bought stones from these sites before? I am looking for 2.5 mm round blue sapphires to have mounted into a ring. I assume I should get diamond/brilliant cut ones, as per grade at least AA?

Any input is appreciated!

 

[Pandora II]

Hello All,

I am trying to make a Sapphire Eternity Band as per my previous post. I have called a few of the recommend merchants here and it seems that smaller calibrated stones are not their specialty. I have been referred to two different sites: riogrande.com and africagems.com

Has anyone worked or bought stones from these sites before? I am looking for 2.5 mm round blue sapphires to have mounted into a ring. I assume I should get diamond/brilliant cut ones, as per grade at least AA?

Any input is appreciated!

I would leave the sourcing to your jeweller - there are trade-only suppliers for things like this that they will have access to.

Secondly, there is no such thing as a grade A, AA or AAA - it means only what that particular vendor wants it to mean. Vendor X's AAA grading might be Vendor Y's 'wouldn't touch the stuff if you paid me' grading.

Most melee comes as round brilliants, although you can also get princess cuts and baguettes. Anything else would need to be custom cut most probably.

 

[Lilia]

Rio Grande's AAA sapphires are nice, although they do not match precisely in colour and size. I suppose you would have to ask them to do that specially for you.

 

[PrecisionGem]

As Pandora said, you are best off to let your jeweler order these. They can order more than what you need, match them and send the rest back.

 

[chrono]

Can I ask why you are looking for melees on your own? Is it for budgetary reasons or that you are picky about the melees? Most jewellers will either call up Stuller or some such company to source coloured stone melees. They will do their best to match colour and size. It is a hassle to source one's own melees to get them to match. Such places still use the A, AA, AAA and etc grading but there is really no such widely recognized and accepted standard. Each store will have their own grading which who knows what they mean and will vary from place to place.

 

[Edward Bristol]

I think the OP started out trying to find unheated sapphires in small sizes.

 

[SB621]

Spartan,

If you are interested i have 10 oval cut sapphire melee that I was going to make a project out of but probably won't get to it anymore. If you want I can post them on the bistro if you are interested.

 

[VapidLapid]

multicolour has tons of melee
mastercutgems often has some sets of sapphires in small sizes

 

[SpartanRed]

I am trying to source my own stones because of budget reasons. I have gotten some prices for the setting itself and it may seem that I could get the stones myself and save some money. I am on a tight budget for this project.

I did talk to Edward about getting some stones but at this point I am more going for look than quality of stone (in regards to heat treatment).

 

[chrono]

Unfortunately, the bulk of the cost is the labour of setting those melees, not the melees themselves. It will be more cost effective to purchase a ready made band.

 

[eac]

You've got some good recommendations already, but I had a very good experience with buying stones from Aussie Sapphire. Because they do mostly lapidary supplies, their sapphires are a bit buried here:

http://www.aussiesapphire.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=140_3

The stone I got from them was a 1 carat, but I have my eye on their smaller stone selections for future projects.

 

[Pandora II]

If you do source them yourself, remember to order more than you need in case some get broken during setting.

I would be very suprised if you find that it saves any money as labour is far and away the biggest cost. You will be paying more for the melee than the jeweller would plus you have shipping costs as well. Have you had quotes for making the ring with and without your own melee?