So… i was sitting here trying to figure out how to market a stone that i don’t know what it is but i have buyers. iv came to the conclusion that i should only come off a small portion of what i have till i can have it further identified.
An as far as monetary value i charge just for my time at a rate of 15$ a hour. only because these are some of my first completed stones so there not as close to perfect as id like.and i disclose that i do not know what the stones are atm but give them my thoughts on what they might be and inform them that i wont be selling no more till iv had them identified by a professional.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
if i didn’t need more equipment i would have the customers wait till i had them identified but as most of you know some of this stuff isn’t cheap.
also need the money for classes to further my education in gemology.
Honesty is always the best course of action. Tell your customers that you have not been able to definitively identify the material as yet. I would point out, that is the reason for the low cost which may go up once the material is identified satisfactorily. As long as the material and your work are attractive to the buyers, that should be sufficient to initiate the marketing of the material. Remember that people buy turquoise dyed Howlite and in many instances jewelry containing turquoise colored plastic for the color and appearance alone. Wishing you good fortune in your endeavors.
Cabbing doesn’t produce a lot of income unless you are able to source uncommon, colorful and rare material at a cheap price and work it up (sawing and cutting and polishing, then possibly setting) quickly. Cabs are available all over on line, so it is easy to look up prices of both commercial material from China and high end cabs cut in the US and UK. The polish on the latter might be somewhat better. -royjohn
the cabs are for a private purchaser that is already established in wire wrapped jewellery. my material is free for this client for its stuff i have stocked up and more then enough to satisfy my client and also practice facet styles. iv decided to just call them stones and leave it at that and only work with this material when requested. iv just got ahold of a very old columbine emerald apx. 50 carats. ill be sending it off to get papers on it. iv also got a few peopl coming to me with some interesting stuff but i cant afford to give them what they should get.