Just curious about how people chose to store their gemstones. I’ve seen a few different storage methods but none that quite fit my needs. Also I really enjoy seeing what people come up with. Would anyone be willing to share their methods or photos of their storage systems?
Right now I’ve got all of my gemstones in the individual little baggies that I receive them in. Not an ideal system for seeing what I have at once.
Hi Lindsey!
I spent a couple of years acquiring an inventory of stones before starting to make jewelry, so I needed a lot of storage. I bought gem boxes similar to these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NPLGXK9?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5
They come in all shapes and sizes to suit different sized stones. I even got some long narrow boxes for storing large parcels of identically sized stones, such as a parcel of 70 small red marquise cut 0.5 ct Songea sapphires.
I bought this Dymo label maker and a supply of label cartridges:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NVTE5E?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3
I use it to create labels to stick onto the bottom of the gem boxes to identify the gem species, dimensions, carat weight, and the price I paid for the stone(s). I also put a unique inventory number on the box that allows me to look it up in a custom database application I created to manage my inventory (I was a software engineer before becoming a metalsmith/jeweler). If you don’t have coding skills, you could use a spreadsheet like Libre Office to catalog your inventory.
The application allows me to store much more information about a given stone such as a more detailed description, the country where the stone was mined and the date purchased, just to name a few attributes. The database application also allows me to store video and still images. This enables me to do searches of my inventory to find similar or complimentary stones that are suitable for a specific design I’m working on.
The physical storage I use for my gemstone inventory is a set of cabinets having lots of shallow drawers of the type used by artists to store artwork:
The vast majority of gems in my inventory range in size between one to six carats and fit in the smaller gem boxes. These gem boxes are a perfect fit in these drawers.
The larger gems I store in a slightly larger set of cabinets:
I also have more expensive stones that came with certificates. These are stored in a locking four drawer metal filing cabinet. The drawers are internally organized with hanging file folders. I place the gemstone inside a zipper-top plastic gem bag. This bag is placed inside the certificate’s clear plastic envelope if the stone is small enough to fit without damaging the envelope. Otherwise, I’ll use a binder clip to attach the gem bag to the outside top of the envelope.
I was taught during my military service days to create and maintain a proper file index. This is a printed document listing the entire contents of a specific file drawer. This index is kept inside the front of the drawer. Rather than have to pull individual items out of the drawer one at a time and examine them to find the item wanted, one can instead quickly scan the index to see if this drawer contains the item wanted.
I try to organize my physical inventory so that it’s grouped by color. For example: blue topaz, aquamarine, sapphire, and apatite go in one group of cabinet drawers; garnet, ruby, and fire opal in another; emerald, tsavorite garnet, chrome diopside, chrysoprase, jadeite and nephrite in yet another. I segregate opal from the other stones and group it by type, i.e. black opal in one drawer, boulder opal in another, white opal from Lightning Ridge in another, etc. I put shells and pearls in their own cabinets, organized into drawers by type, i.e. paua in one drawer, abalone in another, mother of pearl in yet another, and pearls in gem boxes separated by type in yet another.
This arrangement serves me well.
Do you also have a large inventory?
Kind Regards,
Greg
Hi,
for faceted stones, i use round plastic in full size black full size lidded cardboard boxes, with foam inserts.
for cabochons, gemstone beads, organics, I use binders, with business card and baseball card inserts, into which fit small ziplock bags…i use double stick tape and index cards that slip into the ziplock bags
uniform storage is important to me…
julie
Thanks for the breakdown and links! Your system is so impressive, I’m envious of your gemstone database! I value maintaining records like that and I think it’s just so cool that you were able to develop your own database to catalog your inventory.
My collection is a decent size and always growing, although probably not as large as yours. I’ve recently started selling my jewelry and I am finding that I’m in need of further organization and would like to be able to know what I have available more efficiently. I’m definitely going to try out the drawer system.
Thanks so much!
I don’t have a single way of storing my stones because I’m just not that organized 
. However, I store my gemstones, rocks, beads, pearls in different containers. I keep small mineral rock specimens in their original display cases (for bookshelf + coffee table display). Pearls are bundled all in their own packing box, in soft jewelry cloth bags for some protection. As for some of the gemstones, they are stored, as another poster does, in small gemstone cases, usually their original cases. And the larger gemstone collection are also in small cases organized in large jewelry trays. I hope to graduate to arranging them in tabouret tables, or some other type of artist organization furniture. I’m not yet at that level though. 
I too use the little round or square gem boxes and put them in glass topped jewelry display boxes. I recently inherited a 250 gem collection that was collected from 1970 to 1990. Only some of the gems, they are all faceted, were labeled. A bench jeweler friend suggested this great app called “Rock Identifier” that allowed you to use your iPhone to take photos of gems or stones. It identifies lab vs natural gems, provides a ton of technical info as well as gem mythology, values chemical make up, and allows you to curate a catalog of your stones. It costs ~$39 a year and you can easily download your catalog if you don’t want to keep paying. It’s been tremendously helpful for me in identifying some of the more mysterious gems in my inherited inventory. Also I used it to add some fun myth into the provenance I provide for commissions.