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where to get purple gemstone studs on budget

MichelleCarmen

MichelleCarmen

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 8, 2003
Messages
15,880
Hi Everyone,

I would like to get a pair of stud earrings - amethysts, specifically, and ordered a pair from Blue Nile and they arrived today and I'm really unhappy with them. So, now I am thinking that I will extend beyond just amethysts and looking for nice purple stones.

Is there any recommendation for a good place to get round stones 6 mm set in basket settings? I do not care if the settings are WG or silver, just that the stones are well matched. (the BN ones were 5 mm, but it seems that with the dark color, they looked smaller.)

I'm not really picky with color, it's just the pair I got, I could see they didn't exactly match and the tables on the two stones were not the same size. Even though that is not obvious when wearing, it still bugs me enough that I'm sending the pair I purchased back.

My budget is $200 including the settings.

Thanks for any ideas.
 
Hey MC,

Love your avatar! If you're looking for really well-matched stones, you probably need to contact smaller jewelers who are doing the work themselves and can fit your standards for matching. I'd try Caren and Dan at DanielM and Jessi Clark-White at Distinction Jewelry, both on Etsy. They both work with small budgets, are happy to do custom work for sizes and shades that suit you, have good 'eyes' for colored stones and are good communicators about exactly what bugged you about the previous pair. Jessi also has a focus on stones sourced directly from miners, 'fair trade' and ethically mined stones, which may or may not be particularly appealing to you...

Hope it goes well!
 
Why not buy some stones and have them set? I bought some 14k martini settings from Rio Grande for under $50 and my jeweler put my stones in for about $40. I think that's the best way to do nice studs on a budget.
 
cm366|1355527411|3331617 said:
Hey MC,

Love your avatar! If you're looking for really well-matched stones, you probably need to contact smaller jewelers who are doing the work themselves and can fit your standards for matching. I'd try Caren and Dan at DanielM and Jessi Clark-White at Distinction Jewelry, both on Etsy. They both work with small budgets, are happy to do custom work for sizes and shades that suit you, have good 'eyes' for colored stones and are good communicators about exactly what bugged you about the previous pair. Jessi also has a focus on stones sourced directly from miners, 'fair trade' and ethically mined stones, which may or may not be particularly appealing to you...

Hope it goes well!
Click to expand...
I think Daniel M will be more than $200 if you want custom studs done. If you use the settings he already has it's less.
 
This seller sometimes has calibrated amethysts in nice colors.
http://myworld.ebay.com/concavecutter45/

Have you ever been on the DJraregems site before? They have a discount section and last time I looked they had some purple spinels. I think they were kind of dark though. Simplysapphires has some pairs in various colors.
 
I thought someone on here was recently looking for stud earrings for her sister, and her price was $100 or under. Much to my surprise, someone pointed her to a seller on etsy, I believe, who had some gorgeous choices. She ended up with some really nice studs in a completely different color than she thought she would, but she had a hard time deciding between three different pairs - all very nice. Does anyone remember that thread and more importantly, the etsy artist?
 
If you want to try again with pre-set earrings, I've bought earrings from etsy vendor JetFlair several times - cabochons though - and have been very happy with the quality and the color matching - here's a link to her current amethyst earring selection - http://www.etsy.com/shop/jetflair/s...r=date_desc&view_type=gallery&ref=shop_search - and if you do a PS search I think you'll find other PSers who have been happy with their purchases from JetFlair. Just another option...
 
JetFlair is excellent, they're the user name for Distinction Jewelry as mentioned above. I've gotten simple earrings, in silver, from DanielM for very close to their stock setting prices - they do charge significantly more for custom designs, but simple basket earrings they probably have already.
 
minousbijoux|1355531519|3331675 said:
I thought someone on here was recently looking for stud earrings for her sister, and her price was $100 or under. Much to my surprise, someone pointed her to a seller on etsy, I believe, who had some gorgeous choices. She ended up with some really nice studs in a completely different color than she thought she would, but she had a hard time deciding between three different pairs - all very nice. Does anyone remember that thread and more importantly, the etsy artist?
Click to expand...


I'd be interested to know the seller just to compare. Either way, Etsy sounds like the perfect place to shop. Thanks for the suggestions...

If anyone has experience with other sellers there, please post! I had wished to get a pair before Christmas, but time is running out...almost Christmas break! I'll post photos of the BN earrings before I send them back. They must have had low stock or something because the pair I bought has 60 reviews, with an average of 4-5 stars. Or people must not look at all. It didn't take a loop to see the tables were different! Kinda bizarre... Oh well..
 
cm366|1355533407|3331697 said:
JetFlair is excellent, they're the user name for Distinction Jewelry as mentioned above. I've gotten simple earrings, in silver, from DanielM for very close to their stock setting prices - they do charge significantly more for custom designs, but simple basket earrings they probably have already.
Click to expand...

Perfect. Thanks. For these, custom isn't necessary. A lot of my clothes are purple so it'd be fun to have earrings to match.
 
minousbijoux|1355531519|3331675 said:
I thought someone on here was recently looking for stud earrings for her sister, and her price was $100 or under. Much to my surprise, someone pointed her to a seller on etsy, I believe, who had some gorgeous choices. She ended up with some really nice studs in a completely different color than she thought she would, but she had a hard time deciding between three different pairs - all very nice. Does anyone remember that thread and more importantly, the etsy artist?
Click to expand...

I think minousbijoux is referring to this PS thread: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/small-sapphire-earrings.181626/ - the vendor is etsy vendor JetFlair (http://www.etsy.com/shop/jetflair), who also now has her own website called Distinction Jewelry (http://distinctionjewelry.com/info/store/)
 
minousbijoux|1355531519|3331675 said:
I thought someone on here was recently looking for stud earrings for her sister, and her price was $100 or under. Much to my surprise, someone pointed her to a seller on etsy, I believe, who had some gorgeous choices. She ended up with some really nice studs in a completely different color than she thought she would, but she had a hard time deciding between three different pairs - all very nice. Does anyone remember that thread and more importantly, the etsy artist?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they ended up buying from Distinction Jewelry/Jetflair.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jetflair
I've bought several earrings from them and been satisfied. My only issue was that they don't plate their sterling to prevent tarnish, but I'm fine with that, and they offer easy upgrades to different metals.
 
NKOTB|1355542716|3331799 said:
Here's a cheap pair. Yvonne is really nice to work with, so you could tell her that it is very important to you that the stones be well matched, so she'll pick her best pair. You could likely get them set into white gold and still stay under budget, too.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87109091/6mm-african-amethyst-earrings
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone... I just was looking and saw these....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/106587418/5mm-cushion-cut-tanzanian-rose-garnet?ref=correlated_featured

The prongs look a bit chunky, however I like the cut of the stones!
 
Garnet isn't usually purple like that. I'd probably steer clear of those, because even in the description she mentions how they are raspberry pink, and no mention of purple.
 
I got a nice pair from AJS Gems and then had them set in silver. I think total was $300 but they were a large ct weight at 7mm.

I know Daniel M has preset ones but I don't know the pricing. I would assume they would be around that budget. If not then definitely check Etsy. I'm not sure how quality would be compared to BN but you could always check Amazon as well. Now that they have the seller's marketplace I find that their artisan products are better then expected.
 
FrekeChild|1355777008|3333630 said:
Garnet isn't usually purple like that. I'd probably steer clear of those, because even in the description she mentions how they are raspberry pink, and no mention of purple.
Click to expand...

Thank you for clarifying this.
 
Sarahbear621|1355777718|3333640 said:
I got a nice pair from AJS Gems and then had them set in silver. I think total was $300 but they were a large ct weight at 7mm.

I know Daniel M has preset ones but I don't know the pricing. I would assume they would be around that budget. If not then definitely check Etsy. I'm not sure how quality would be compared to BN but you could always check Amazon as well. Now that they have the seller's marketplace I find that their artisan products are better then expected.
Click to expand...


As I said, I'm not picky and I'm a colored-stone novice, and the BN stones were terrible so I'm at the beginning of a hunt, I suspect! I will browse over the next few weeks.

What should I be looking for in a purple stone? I am a diamond girl at heart, but love purple so I'm trying to combine the qualities of both stones, if that makes sense. Ideally, I'd love to find a purple stone that dazzles such as a diamond does. Should I be looking a different direction? My budget is based on the now, so I can save for something better if it is worth it.

Thank you!
 
Re: Yvonne Raley's prongs - on my tsavorite earrings from her, the prongs looked terrifying in the super-magnified pics but in real life they were quite dainty. If you don't like anything she has in stock you can message her, she's very nice to work with and I've bought several things from her.
 
distracts|1355804735|3334052 said:
Re: Yvonne Raley's prongs - on my tsavorite earrings from her, the prongs looked terrifying in the super-magnified pics but in real life they were quite dainty. If you don't like anything she has in stock you can message her, she's very nice to work with and I've bought several things from her.
Click to expand...

Thanks again. I'll let you know what I end up with. I may take my garnet studs in to be measured as I was comparing them to my .42 diamond and thought they were the same but now am thinking the garnets may be closer to 7 mm and that size looks good for colored stones. I still need to return the BN ones... I don't want to return two sets, so I better head to the mall to have them measured. I wonder if I'd be making a huge mistake buying from Ben Bridge... Guess I can see what they have :))
 
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