Welcome to Stone Mania and our exclusive collection of handmade gemstone jewellery.  We specialize in gemstone pendants in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes and our collection includes as many as 150 different gemstone varieties, all of which are beautifully mounted in sterling silver.  Every single gemstone that we feature has been carefully selected piece by piece personally by us, before being mounted. 

We do not buy our pendants ready made, first of all we buy each gemstone loose from a specialist gemstone dealer who in turn buys the rocks directly from the mines and also from the world famous gemstone show in Tucson, Arizona.  He cuts and polishes each gemstone himself and we subsequently choose the pieces that we wish to use in our pendants.  Many of the gemstones in our larger pendants are cut specifically for us as there is little demand from other retailers for such large pieces.

The process of selecting each gemstone takes place over a number of days during which time we look at hundreds of cabochons in each of the various gemstone varieties that we feature.  Each gemstone is carefully examined before we decide whether to use it or not, we have many years of experience in choosing gemstones and know exactly what we’re looking for.  We are always very  interested in pieces that have particularly unusual colour or characteristics within their respective varieties, as these pieces are always extremely difficult to come by.  Whilst many gemstone varieties can be very similar in appearance, such as Mother of Pearl or Black Onyx, others can be very different.  The gemstone variety known as Ocean Jasper for example, comes in a wide variety of different colours and with many different markings, in fact it is unusual to ever find two pieces exactly the same.  Even the gemstone varieties which are quite plain in colour like Rose Quartz, Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst can vary significantly so by choosing each gemstone piece by piece, we can offer our customers the widest choice of gemstones in as many as 150 different gemstone varieties.     

Another reason why we choose each gemstone loose instead of buying our pendants ready made, is so that we can offer many gemstone varieties that are rarely seen used in jewellery, such as Meteorite, Eudialyte, Phosphosiderite, Tiffany (ice cream opal), Charoite, Pietersite, Seraphinite, Dinosaur Bone, Prehnite, Orthoceras and many more.  Not only do we feature these rarely seen gemstone varieties, but the pieces in our collection are the finest specimens available on the market and many are made even more unusual due to their colour, markings or even size.  Gemstones come in many different qualities but we only look at the very finest quality that is available.  We are not interested in buying low grade stones and never give these pieces consideration.  The vast majority of our gemstones are grade A or triple A quality and this standard is rarely found in jewellery which is mass produced or bought ready made.        

Having chosen each gemstone that we wish to use, they are then passed to the silversmiths and craftsmen who proceed to mount each piece individually entirely by hand in sterling silver or in some cases, white gold. Each gemstone is mounted very simply as we don’t believe in fancy silverwork.  A gemstone is a thing of great natural beauty so we feel it should be mounted as simply as possible so that the gemstone itself has all the attention.  We set very high standards and insist that each pendant is perfectly finished.  Before being offered for sale, every piece is carefully inspected and as our regular customers will know, we never compromise standards in order to try to save a few pennies here or there.   

We are very passionate about gemstones and have put together a ‘Gemstone Directory’ at the bottom of our website which offers extensive information on each of the gemstone varieties that we feature.  It also has hundreds of links to many other pages of interest.

It is very important to look after your gemstones carefully and one way that you can do this is to add a small amount of natural oil to it every few months, olive oil is ideal.  Put a tiny drop on the gemstone, spread it evenly around and leave it to absorb for a few minutes before wiping the excess away with a soft dry cloth.  A gemstone will dehydrate over time and the oil helps to prevent this from happening.  Although all gemstone varieties dehydrate, Turquoise is particularly prone to this and can also loose its colour in the process.  Never put a gemstone into any kind of silver cleaning solution or use a chemical cleaner on it, firstly it should never be never necessary to do this and secondly it is likely to damage the gemstone.  The best way to clean the silver mounting is simply with a blue silver cloth, ‘Goddards’ is the one that we would recommend.  Sterling silver does tarnish over time especially if it is not being worn, but this can be easily rubbed off with one of these cloths.  We recommend each gemstone be kept in a pouch or wrapped in a soft cloth when not being worn as this will help protect them and prevent them from becoming scratched or damaged.   

Our collection of gemstone pendants really is quite vast and we do try to feature on our website at least one or two of every type of gemstone variety that we have.  When shopping online for a pendant, should you not be able to find the gemstone in the size, shape or colour that you are ideally looking for, please do contact us and we will see if we can find something more suitable in our stock that we will then upload for you to look at.   

Many of our pendants are now hallmarked using our own Stone Mania (SM) stamp at the London Assay Office, but so that we can continue to be as competitively priced as possible, pendants which retail for less than £40, will continue to have the fully recognized .925 silver stamp.  Should you wish to have our own exclusive British hallmark on one of these pieces instead, this can be arranged for a minimal charge.  

Before using our website, please take a few moments to read the pages in the ‘information box’ on the left side of the home page.  These include a guide to shopping online with Stone Mania, payment options, our order and returns policy, terms and conditions and contact details.  You will also find our ‘Events Diary’ here which details the shows that we will be trading at throughout the year. 

If you are a webmaster and feel that your website may be of interest to some of our visitors, please refer to our ‘Link Partners’ page as we are always looking for new and interesting sites to link to.  Likewise if you feel that some of our pages could be of interest to your visitors, please feel free to link to us. 

We are confident that once you buy a gemstone from us here at Stone Mania, you will find it difficult to find the same quality elsewhere for the same price.  There are certainly plenty of gemstones available on the market including many that are the same gemstone variety that we feature, however as with everything, there are qualities and the quality of our gemstones really is far superior to many others that you may see that have been mass produced or bought in bulk.  We don’t promise to be the cheapest people to buy gemstones from, but we do promise to be the most competitively priced when taking into consideration the quality of each gemstone that we feature. 

Thank you for visiting Stone Mania online, we hope you enjoy using our website and please feel free to contact us with any questions.