accent-sized stones

[peridot]

Hello everybody,

I've been reading your forum on and off for years. I've learned a bit and enjoyed looking at some fabulous pictures of fine jewels and beautiful pieces. Now I've got a question and I'm hoping people here can steer me in the right direction.

I'm having some earrings re-worked. I bought them because their style and setting perfectly matches a bracelet I already own. I bought them knowing that the diamonds were really bad (I2) and I intended to replace them eventually. Now it's time.

What I need is a matched lot of 24 round stones, 2mm each. I want good quality stones -- SI1-VS2, G and above -- as the entire point of having them reworked is to get rid of the dull, lifeless diamonds in them now.

The problem I'm running into is that all of the regular online diamond merchants I'm familiar with from reading PriceScope don't tend to deal in anything that small. I think I'm looking for something around 0.035 carat and I'm not seeing much out there that's smaller than .25 or .3 carat.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

 

[slg47]

have you asked the jeweler who is reworking them about sourcing the stones?

 

[stone-cold11]

Usually melee are not grade and sold individually. Ask a trusted vendor to source for you.

 

[peridot]

have you asked the jeweler who is reworking them about sourcing the stones?

I have asked the jeweller to get me a price. The first question he asked me, however, was would I be supplying the stones. It's not that he doesn't want to get them for me, it's just that he knows me and knows that I've brought in other stones for him to set.

I'll probably just go with his supply in the end, but I did want to get a sense of what to expect, before I have to go and pick up the other piece he's working on for me and get the quote for the earrings.

One of the places I've bought stones from in the past is sold out that size and quality, but apparently they were selling for around US$18 per stone. I just wasn't sure how well that price reflected what else was available in the market.

 

[peridot]

Usually melee are not grade and sold individually. Ask a trusted vendor to source for you.

Thanks for the helpful reply. I knew I'd probably need to buy a small lot, but I never knew what the technical term was for the smaller sized stones (hence my use of "accent-sized") That should help me in my search.

 

[denverappraiser]

(Hint: It's pronounced mell-y. It rhymes with belly)

I second the plan of using the setter as a supplier for this kind of thing. Often the labor to build the piece is a bigger deal than the cost of the stones and it saves a lot of fingerpointing to have the metal, the stones and the labor all come from the same source, even if they aren't the rock bottom price for that particular component.

 

[peridot]

Since I've asked the question, I've been reading through the archives a bit. I see there's been some discussion about single cut vs. full cut melee stones. To be honest, I wasn't even sure with stones that small that there would be a big difference in how they could be cut.

So should I ask the jeweller to quote on both styles of cut? Should I have a preference -- it seems from what I've read that the single cuts are probably closer in line with what I want -- but I'm more than willing to admit that this aspect of stone cutting is new to me. I want the stones in the earrings to have life and presence and flash.