Stone sorting

[Patstone]

Does anyone have a good method for storing stones so you can find them again in a hurry. A friend of mine sorts them by size, but if she wants a particular colour she has to trawl through quite a few bags. I have mine in pots - so I have say Garnets in one pot, Adventurine in another etc, but my problem is that I cant find a particular size easily. Save writing it all down in a book, cant think which is best, although I suppose storing by size is probably the best as there can probably only be about 20 different sizes and there are millions of stones types. Ideas anyone....................

[Dennis]

Hi Pat, I think you have asked this before. Maybe you have bought even more stones since.
Cooksons have all these: http://www.cooksongold.com/category_select.jsp?query=Storage+boxes.
And these;
http://www.cooksongold.com/category_select.jsp?query=999+098,

But if they are too small, I would suggest you go to a Home Base, or B&Q, where they have boxes with drawers, in the tool department. The only problem I have had with those, is that the partitions lift up and cause trouble unless they are stuck down with a few drops of superglue. Dennis.

[Patstone]

What I meant was do you sort them by size or colour. Got loads of pots, at the moment I have all my carnellian together, all my garnets together but the sizes are mixed up, so if I decide to use garnets for instance there are perhaps 8 in the bag. If I stored it by "size" I would have a pot where I may have 20 different colour stones but they would all be say, 3mm or 5mm etc. I was just wondering how others store their gemstones, they cant just chuck them in a big bag !!!!!!!

[Wallace]

sort them by both Pat, is the answer if you want to find them quickly. Or alphabetically by size, which is what I now do with all newly acquired stones.

[art925]

Using a unit such as this one Pat you can sort by stone type and size if you use the draws as an axis; size of stone across the top, type of stone down the length.
6367

[SteveLAO]

I used to sort mine as follows: A box for each variety, then within the box the stones were kept in stone papers....rounds in mm size, others by shape. Within each paper the stones were in little ziplock bags grouped in colour.
This was for "precious stones" though and I concede with non precious the stone papers may not be practical, but you could always substitute the papers for larger ziplock bags, then you could easily see what you have in each category.

[mizgeorge]

I use one of these : http://www.thecraftkitcompany.com/acatalog/Boxes_in_Small_Cases.html#a27 (mine is, I think, a Jane's case). I use a different box for each stone, organised alphabetically, with tiny ziplocs within each box for different colours, cuts and sizes. There are a couple of larger boxes in the middle that I use for large and odd shaped cabs.

They're not particularly cheap to start with, but work brilliantly, and hold masses of stones.

[Keia]

I store mine in a little crafting drawer unit and by size. They all have their own tiny bags with a wee note on saying how much I paid for that batch & the name of the supplier (mostly so I'll know which suppliers are best for which stone, which ones to avoid and who to use again - I've had bad luck in the past with some really shoddy quality cabs). I also use the tin with the small tubs inside from Cooksons (that came inside a goody bag I was very lucky to win) for any odd shape cabs.

[Tabby66]

I keep type of stones together, e.g amethysts, topaz, etc....and they are stored in trays with shapes and sizes kept together, e.g 4mm round facetted, 4mm round cab, 5mm round facetted,....etc,....some trays are filled with one stone type, where I have fewer stones, I put similar colour groups in a tray, so for instance chrome diopside are in the same tray as tsavorites.......hope that helps a little Pat.

Like Sian I keep a record of price paid, though I tend to check current price, since I have collected stones over many years and price of replacement if needed has often increased and a note of supplier.

[ps_bond]

Raw materials ought to be charged at what it costs to replace them. If you'd bought gold a few years ago, then to sell it at the price you paid would be insane. Conversely, if you bought it in at the peak, you wouldn't expect to sell it at a higher price than it's at now.

[ShinyLauren]

You're all so organised! My stones remain in the little plastic bags they come in, all chucked in a tin.

Obvs it takes me ages to find the one I want!

[MeadMoon]

ShinyLauren, I'm glad it's not just me :)

[Jasdir Singh Jaura]

I sort my stones and beads in plastic drawer, each drawer containing 10-20 small boxes. Hope you will like the Idea :)

http://s1273.photobucket.com/user/Jasdir/media/100_0440_zps3982e0f0.jpg.html