Buying Jewelry Components for Jewelry Making

I have been making jewelry and selling it for several years now. Over this period of time, I've learned some great tips on how to get the jewelry components I need for a great price. Going to the local craftstore can become very expensive over time. Five and ten dollar purchases add up quickly aftered repeated purchases and realizing you need another component or you are short on beads for a specific piece.

If you are like me, once I started, making jewelry became an addiction. It not only spurred my creative side, I found it to be relaxing. Once I mastered beaded jewelry, it was time to try wire jewelry; and once I was able to make quality jewelry correctly, I wanted to buy more expensive components. All of this knowledge meant more money that needed to be spent, so I made a deal with myself. I would never spend more on materials than what I made selling some of the jewelry I made. But I needed to be able to get my components at a very low price to make the items that I was craving to make.

Over time, and after purchasing components from different online sources, I came across one that I feel is the best place to order jewelry components. There are several reasons. First of all, it has an enormous amount of items to choose from. The site is very user friendly. You can bargain shop or go straight to the sterling silver or precious gems section. It could be overwhelming for someone who is not familiar with jewelry component items, but for the experienced beader, it is a gold mine. This fabulous place I'm referring to is Fire Mountain Gems. Don't go there yet, because I need to tell you how to get extremely low prices while shopping at this site.

After making a couple of small purchases, I realized a much more efficient and satisfying way to shop at this site. Instead of making several purchases, it paid off to make one large purchase that would last for several months or even a year. The way it works is the more items you buy, the less money you pay for each individual item. The best part is that this can include any combination of items. The prices are tiered in the following quantities: 1-14, 15-49, 50-199, 200+. For instance, 65 Czech fire-polished beads cost $4.47 per strand. Add 14 more items, and you will pay $3.30 for the same strand. You will also pay the 2nd tier price for the 14 items you added to your cart. This same strand of beads will cost $2.67 if you add 49 other items to your cart. And those 49 items will also go down in price to the 3rd tier cost range. I always found it most cost efficient to get my 50 items. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the total cost change when adding my 50th item to my cart.

Because I have experience buying several of the items I purchased at other shopping sites and stores, I know the 3rd and 4th tier prices are a huge savings. If you know what you want and need to make your incredible jewelry, and you are able to make a large purchase to use over time, this is the site for you.

Fire Mountain Gems offers a wealth of resouces too. Their Gallery of Designs gives you thousands of ideas with instructions and material lists on how to make beautiful jewelry pieces. There are How-to Videos explaining the many techniques used in jewelry making such as how to work with poymer clay. There is an EncyclBEADia filled with useful charts, interesting articles, and a complete dictionary of beading terms.