About Us

 

About Us

My Crystal Grove LLC. is a small business located in central Virginia. Our company started out specializing in handmade jewelry using natural gemstones and has grown over the years to include selling hand cut gemstones, raw minerals, and unique carvings at affordable prices. Our goal is to provide unique materials for jewelry makers to use in their own work. We offer bulk and wholesale discounts without the need of a retail sales license and we proudly offer multiple payment plans for those who need them. After years of building relationships with small businesses and family owned companies, we now proudly work with over 60 different miners and carvers around the world to bring you high quality stones at affordable prices without high mark-ups.

Our Quality Checking Process 

Our stones go through a detailed process of cleaning, quality checking, counting, pricing, and a photo-shoot before they become available to the public.

• We start off with a general quality check as we count out our inventory and make sure our numbers match up. Any damaged stones are removed and added to our "Clearance Bin", which is used for Imperfect Auctions in our Facebook group. There is also a listing available on our website which sells these damaged or otherwise imperfect items in random 1 oz scoops.

• Once we've reviewed the quantity of stones received and mark them in our logs, it's time to move on to testing for dye. We take pride in making sure that our natural stones are real and unaltered. If we do happen to end up with deceitfully enhanced or dyed stones, they are generally marked for clearance at or below cost with full disclosure.

• Now that our stones have passed the initial test for dye, it's time to clean them of any dirt, fingerprints, smudges, or oil. Many carvers and miners ship delicate stones, particularly those in the feldspar family, in oil to protect them from chipping during shipping. Not only is this oil unpleasant to clean off, but it can also hide chips, fractures, and other notable damage. It's probably the most important step we take in our quality checking process.

• After the stones have been cleaned and have passed their second inspection, they move on to being sized, weighed, and calibrated stones are triple checked for accuracy with our high-end Mitutoyo calipers.

• Finally, our stones are photographed outdoors in natural lighting and are listed. Our stones are first listed in our Facebook group, Gemstone Clearance Sale, where our group members have exclusive access to brand new stones before they are moved to the website.