One of the best home businesses to get started in today is jewelry.  Whether you want to operate an online business, a retail store, or offer home parties, selling jewelry can be a great opportunity for fun and profit.  One of the first things you’ll have to do is find a supplier of wholesale jewelry, but before you do, it’s always a good idea to research your materials as much as possible.  In this article we will provide a glossary of some of the most common jewelry terms that you may come across as you prepare for your business start up.

1.Alloy: An alloy is a combination of a base metal with a precious metal to give it certain desired qualities such as color, hardness or malleability.  Some common alloys that are used often in jewelry making include brass, bronze and gold.

2.Carat:  This is the term used to describe the weight of diamonds and some other precious gemstones. The standardized measurement of a carat is 200 milligrams.

3.Brilliant Cut: Also referred to as a round cut of diamond, it includes a total of 58 facets, and is one of the most widely found cuts of diamond.

4.Channel setting: This term is used to describe a continuous strip of uniformed sized gems that have been placed together in a row or “channel”.

5.Cubic Zirconia: These are manmade stones that to the naked eye look exactly like diamonds, and are much less expensive.

6.Emerald Cut: This cut of gemstone is stepped and can be rectangular or square and is often used in cutting stones such as emeralds to accent their color.

7.Fancy Cut:  This term is used to describe any cut for a diamond other than the round brilliant or single cut.   Examples of fancy cuts include emerald, marquise, heart, pear and many others.

8.Girdle: This term defines the outer edge or the rim of the stone that is held by the setting of the piece.

9.Hallmark: This is a mark stamped on a piece of jewelry to prove its purity as well as sometimes the maker, country of origin, or age.

10.Platinum:  Platinum is the most precious of white metals and is very difficult both to retrieve and to refine and is therefore much more expensive than gold.

11.White gold:  Because of the expense of platinum, white gold was fashioned as an alternative. It is a man made gold alloy, and while fairly long-lasting, it lacks the durability of platinum.

12.Precious metal:  This term is used to describe the only three precious metals in the world; gold, silver and platinum.

13.Rhinestone: This term describes a stone made of glass, often used in the manufacture of costume jewelry.

14.Rose gold:  This is not a true gold but an alloy made of gold and copper that gives it a pinkish tint.

15.Semi precious stones: This term refers to the many stones that are still highly valued for their beauty but they are not as rare as precious stones.  Some examples include amethyst, opal, garnet and more.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Wholesale Jewelry website as the original source).

For the individual just getting started in the jewelry business, finding wholesale jewelry suppliers can be the most daunting task. Although the internet is without a doubt, a rich resource for business owners, for some people who are used to dealing with real, tangible suppliers, shopping online for wholesale merchandise can be a bit intimidating not to mention somewhat overwhelming. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when trying to find a dependable, quality supplier online for your wholesale jewelry merchandise.

1.Start broad and narrow your search as you go.  Start with search terms such as wholesale jewelry, and then narrow it down to more specific types of jewelry such as gold jewelry, silver jewelry wholesale.  Then when you have found some general sites to investigate, you can look within those sites for very specific items such as wholesale diamond earrings, or wholesale silver pendants, etc.

2.Once you have located a few possible suppliers, try to check their credibility before placing any orders.  Look for testimonials, satisfaction guarantees and well defined business policies. Make sure they have a good return policy.  Remember you are going to be buying items from photographs only so you want to be able to send the merchandise back if it doesn’t meet your expectations. Also, make certain you understand clearly how to make those returns and who is responsible for the expense of making the returns.

3.Before you go to all the trouble of selecting the items you want, make certain the company has payment options that suit your preferred method of payment.  Do they accept the credit card you want to use?  Are there other options for payment if you don’t want to use a credit card? Is there site secure and safe from fraud?

4.Ask as many questions of the seller as you deem necessary to be sure you are getting exactly what is being advertised. The first step here is to really educate yourself on what you’re looking for so you know what questions to ask.

5.If you’re not in a rush to buy, it might be worthwhile to sign up for the company’s newsletter or catalogue updates so you can keep up with current trends and find merchandise that is selling well at the time.  If the site has an online catalogue in printable format, consider printing it off to peruse at times when you have a few moments but can’t be on the computer.

6.Check through the entire website and not just the catalogue.  Look for interesting news articles, selling tips, business advice and even success stories of clients who are doing well using those products.  A wholesaler’s web site can often be a wealth of useful information to help you get started on your way to a successful business.

7.Read the shipping policies very carefully, especially if you are buying outside your country of residence.  Importing wholesale merchandise can often involve increased costs for customs and taxes.  Make certain you understand exactly what your order is going to cost.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Wholesale Jewelry website as the original source).