I’ve been hearing for years that artificial gems (diamonds, rubies, moissanite, etc) cost a ‘fraction’ of the real thing. Is this true? If so, where can I as a consumer buy a handful of this stuff?
Note that I don’t want jewellery-grade gems, I realise that would cost a lot simply due to rejects and labour to cut / polish. I just want stuff I can mess around with for hobbies and crafts.
They are a lot cheaper yes, diamond mining companies artificially limit supply to keep the price of the mined diamonds up. We have an abundance of them, so the lab grown ones are significantly cheaper because their supply isn’t artificially limited
There’s absolutely zero reason to ever buy a real diamond as a fashion statement.
Unless you only prefer diamonds made from human suffering.