How did you get into gemstone collecting?

[Nashville]

I've always loved it since childhood. I used to collect rocks in shoe boxes and even found a few crystals and petrified wood in the woods near my house. I gave it up for a few years but I'm getting into the more polished gems now and it's fascinating.

 

[klewis]

It started for me when I bought a gem that turned out to be a terrible example of the gem type. It had everything wrong with it but I couldn't see any of it. After a while I began to take more notice, and started to see the window, the surface breaking inclusions and more. Because of that I began to read about stones and came across Pricescope which has provided me with lots of interesting leads to follow. I wouldn't say I was a "collector", more a gem enthusiast.

Nashville, are you still collecting mineral specimens? I often browse though the mineral specimens at Pala's site - awesome.

 

[Porridge]

I think there was a thread about this in the last year or so but I can't find it...

I started when I was a child, collecting rocks. When I was about 8 or so I started a subscription to a mineral and rock magazine, they'd send a new specimen with each issue. I think I still have them lying around at home somewhere. My "starter stones" were from my teenage years and were mostly amethyst and other crappy bits of quartz. I also used to collect geodes. I was engaged briefly when I was 23/24 and I found PS while looking up engagement rings, and became addicted to the CS forum!

 

[T L]

A lot of us collected rocks as children and took a keen interest in science. I am one of those science geek children, and I used to get the box of rock examples, the rock tumbler science kits, and I collected various rocks around my neighborhod. I've always had a fascination with geology, and really all science in general.

 

[Fly Girl]

I collected rocks as a child, and continued as an adult. When my children had to do science projects in school, they already had samples of gold ore from our tour of a mine in South Dakato, obsidian from the Rockies, mica from a driveway of a bed and breakfast in the Black Hills, Lake Superior agate, etc. I set my coffee cut on a Labradorite coaster because I really love the play of colors. I'm a fan of moonstone and sunstone for the same reason.

 

[Nashville]

Not collecting minerals anymore, but I was going through my old collection in the attic the other day, and it's really pretty cool how many decent stones I have!

When I was younger (17/1 I always thought I wanted a rough diamond for my engagement ring stone, and now they are kind of trendy.

Black Hills gold hehe, that takes me back. I had so much Black Hills Gold jewelry, I loved the little green gold leaves I also had a giant slab of obsidian and the ball-like thing of amethyste crystal that had broken in two. It looked like some weird crystallized fruit.

 

[chrono]

I started with collecting any unusual rocks or stones as a child but didn’t really get into it until adulthood. After learning about minerals (which I still have a keen interest in), I moved on to faceted gemstones. There is still so much to learn, see, touch and hold.

 

[T L]

There is still so much to learn, see, touch and hold.

. . . and go broke on!! LOL!

Too bad I didn't just stick with cheapie rocks and minerals. I discovered "GEMS" and well, I blame Elizabeth Taylor. It's all her fault.

 

[soberguy]

Same as TL. I used to sit in the alley and go through the gravel to find my "diamonds" LOL! My first purchases, like others I'm sure... were expensive and completely awful. That was the beginning of my distrust of jewelry stores.

 

[colorluvr]

Pretty much the same as everyone else in childhood, pretty rocks - all things sparkly. Most recently (a couple of years ago) it started innocently enough when I bought a stone for a project that didn't work out, but the stone was pretty and I didn't pay a lot for it, so I just kept it..... bought a few more for projects.... some didn't work out, but I kept them and then I realized I just liked collecting them, whether they were for a current project or a possible future project or just to look at..... Now it is just an addiction

 

[Moonstruck]

I have never posted before but I lurk around. My experience is different. Definitely never interested in science. Still not...but as a child I collected "glass" animals in every color I could find at the locat 5 and 10 cent store. Yes, I am old. Age 70 now. I saved my crayons and got really nasty if my sisters used them. As an adult, I started collecting antique glass and gemstones. It is all about the color for me.
Yes, I still love animals too. I have 8 cats that I love. They cost me too much money. Money that could be spent on more gemstones but there you have it.

Thanks to all of you for the continuing education and the pleasure of seeing your beautiful gemstones and jewelry.

 

[LD]

I skipped the rocks part and went straight into bling!

My Mother had a high profile career in the media and as such was always dripping in jewellery and designer clothes so for a kid, my playing up box was my Mum's wardrobe! So I was often to be found draped in jewellery and walking around in shoes far too big carrying glitzy handbags!

And ............ a passion was born!

 

[Largosmom]

We did a lot of camping in the desert as a kid. I did keep a few collectible rocks that interested me, but not a really big collection. We hunted geodes, and my dad was more of a rock hound then me, but I loved to look at rock shops out west. I never have seen one on the east coast, maybe they are hidden. A couple of times, we went out and dug opals in the desert of Nevada, covered with dust, and took home chunks of rock to be tumbled in lye to get out the opal. It was a pure thrill to see a bit of color peeping out of the edge of the rock, which ran in veins in dusty pits. You used a rock hammer, or us kids got regular hammers and a chisel or an old screwdriver to dig with. The downside of seeing the opal was that you knew that you had broken it.

I did not collect anything for much of my early adult years, but I still loved rock displays in museums. I think for me that I am fascinated and want to learn more about the subject. The fact that I can also wear the stones as jewelry makes it more fun.

 

[T L]

I skipped the rocks part and went straight into bling!

My Mother had a high profile career in the media and as such was always dripping in jewellery and designer clothes so for a kid, my playing up box was my Mum's wardrobe! So I was often to be found draped in jewellery and walking around in shoes far too big carrying glitzy handbags!

And ............ a passion was born!

Was your mother's name Elizabeth by any chance?

 

[Nashville]

I have never posted before but I lurk around. My experience is different. Definitely never interested in science. Still not...but as a child I collected "glass" animals in every color I could find at the locat 5 and 10 cent store. Yes, I am old. Age 70 now. I saved my crayons and got really nasty if my sisters used them. As an adult, I started collecting antique glass and gemstones. It is all about the color for me.
Yes, I still love animals too. I have 8 cats that I love. They cost me too much money. Money that could be spent on more gemstones but there you have it.

Thanks to all of you for the continuing education and the pleasure of seeing your beautiful gemstones and jewelry.

I got a first post? I'm honored!

 

[Nashville]

I skipped the rocks part and went straight into bling!

My Mother had a high profile career in the media and as such was always dripping in jewellery and designer clothes so for a kid, my playing up box was my Mum's wardrobe! So I was often to be found draped in jewellery and walking around in shoes far too big carrying glitzy handbags!

And ............ a passion was born!

Was your mother's name Elizabeth by any chance?

Um, ditto!!! I want to know who high profile Mama is

 

[Art Nouveau]

LovingDiamonds: Your story sounds familiar as I did the same thing when I was a child. The difference is my mother was not a celebrity and my sisters and I were playing with her costume jewelry and not her real gems. But I do remember parading around with her high heel shoes that were way too big for me and carrying around her glitzy evening bags.
AN

 

[Arcadian]

I got into it as a child as well. I mainly collected quartz since that was the most inexpensive (plus you could find it easily on camping trips!) We got to visit some caves and such and that really spurred my love of rocks.

I didn't get into the more sparkly ones until I probably 14-15 and could get my own. My first major piece is one I still have from Kmart


-A

 

[maebelle]

Glad to know I'm not the only former rock collector turned Gem enthusiast!

 

[arjunajane]

Ha, who would have known we were all the type of kids to fossick around for rocks when younger?
I was just the same, always on family camping trips etc scouring the ground for anything pretty or interesting..
My favourite trip I will always recall, we camped next to some old ruins of a building in the bush next to a gorgeous stream one family holiday (I would've been ~10y/o or so)...in the morning, the stream was low and the whole bed was made up of gorgeous water-worn rocks and pebbles, I think many of them had lines of quartz through them and I found a few that had small lines of gold..I spent hours in that freezing cold stream and bought home tons of rocks!


As an adolescent I was always attracted to the stones sold at markets such as tigers eye and rose quartz and so on..
I didn't get into "proper" coloured gems until after joining PS.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Liked rocks and minerals as a child, and am into science, so I guess I am kind of the same story as everyone else. I got into it during residency after buying my sapphire. At first it was about making jewelry, but than I became interested in the stones. I have a bunch of loose stones laying around right now.

I had to take a break because I have so much other things going on in my life right now, but I hope to get back into it soon. At the very least, I want to start setting the pieces I have.

 

[Nashville]

Haha I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who had the rock hobby as a kid.

I'm always fascinated with how people work their way into it, especially tradespeople who get to travel the world doing it for a living.

 

[Arkteia]

I have five different answers to this question, and we did have a thread. I think it was RockHugger, she started two of them. One about collecting rocks as children, the other one was this...

I would say that first and foremost, you have to be born a collector.

What eventually led me to this place, after many events, purchases and searches, was Overstock.com.

Overstock has an "estate jewelry" section. I am not going to comment on the jewelry; I do not know. Overstock, however, has excellent return policy!

I once saw an antique ring with an "unheated ruby" there. It was a little bit more than !K and the stone was tiny, and it was size 4 and I am size 9.5. I was deliberating for three months and during this time it disappeared. So I started searching for another unheated ruby... bought some books. Read about Russian demantoids (I was browsing "Russian amethysts"). Googled further...found Africagems, then Pala. Then "I bought a stone from Pala..." line from a PS member. Found PS... the rest is history.

I found my drug of choice. Thanks, Overstock.com and Google!

 

[Astra]

I guess it all started about 15 years ago... when I first saw rough gemstones my father bought... but my real addiction started 4 years ago when my husband bought me tanzanite ring, it was love at first sight . I do have few loose gemstones and pieces of jewelry but I want mooooore!!!

 

[Kismet]

I never collected rocks as a kid, or at least not actively. I had a few specimens of granite but there was no getting away from that when you lived within field trip distance of the Barre VT granite quarries.

I got into gems and jewelry when my husband complained that I wasn't girly enough. I think he regrets saying that now.

 

[chictomato]

I came in touch with jewelry making and gemstones at a tender age of 5.

My uncle started a factory in the mid 80s doing goldsmith work. Well, their main business comes from making of Rolex bracelet in higher gold content. Let me briefly bring this through, I am from Singapore. Most of the people in Asia prefer 916 gold, or 22k (much higher gold content). That explain why there is hardly any major jewelry shop here selling jewelry below 18k. So it was common then for people to replace their original gold Rolex bracelet to a custom made one of a higher gold content (916).

Anyway, other then the gold bracelet making, my uncle's company does customizing jobs too. That was where I got to see all the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald etc . I remembered those were BIG pieces maybe 4 carats and above? Anyway the company ceased operation due to an economic downturn in the 90s. Well, maybe the people then finally learn to appreciate originality in a design!

After that my uncle see a better market doing gem business in Thailand and majority of the time he is base there. Mostly he will source for Sapphires, emerald and Jade, certify the gem, customize the setting in Thailand and than consign the finish pieces to a high end jewel shop in Singapore that was own by a close friend of his.

Okay, that is how my interest in gems started. My uncle has plans to start a jewelry shop in Singapore. How I wish I can be involve then