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.

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