At the weekend I went down to the Rock n Gem fair at Kempton (the snow round here melted by midday on Saturday so I was happy to make the journey there) and did my usual wandering around and bagged myself a nice little haul of rough stones and a few agate cabs. I've no real plans for any of them I just bought them because I liked them but I can see myself having a go at setting them. And then it occurred to me that I should maybe buy a few faceted stones simply because I find them intimidating.

I started off by trying to pick out specific stones from one of the stalls that had a big tray of random stones and was even intimidated by that so in the end pushed my finger into the tray a few times and popped whatever stuck into my little basket. So now I have a small selection of small faceted stones of various shapes and sizes and I'm still hugely intimidated by them.

But, what I have realised is that even if I never set any of them I've got a kind of immediate visual guide to sizes and shapes for buying faceted stones if I ever do decide I want to try setting some. There are a few in my haul that I could probably have a play with should I wish to melt lots of silver in the process, but it's more likely I'll just use them as a visual guide in the future so I'm able to justify what I paid for them. £20 is nothing right?

So I'm interested to know what you all bought and then realised was a mistake? Or what did you think was a mistake that turned out to be useful?