How to Order Melee for a Design — When You Don't Know the Stone Sizes

Short answer: You don't need a stone list to order. Send a photo of the piece you're making — a sketch, a reference image, a customer's screenshot — and we lay the actual stones out next to each other, photograph them, and send you the picture before you pay. You confirm the layout (or show it to your client), we ship the exact counts. Stones are sold by the stone in 13 fancy shapes and by the 1-carat bag in round, calibrated to ±0.1 mm, with no minimum order.

The problem: you have a design, not a stone list

Most melee suppliers assume you already know what you need — shape, exact millimetre, quantity, and how the sizes step down along a row. Independent designers and small studios usually don't. What you have is a picture: a halo you want to rebuild, a tennis line a client sent you, a ring with side stones you're quoting on. The gap between that picture and a purchase order is where most orders stall — and it is why parcels come back wrong.

How ordering by design works here

• 1 · Send the piece. A photo, a sketch, a screenshot, a link — whatever you have. Tell us the main stone size if you know it, or send the main stone's dimensions and we'll work from that.
• 2 · We lay the stones out and photograph them. Leilei goes to the stock room, puts the actual candidate stones next to the main stone in the arrangement you're building, and sends you photos and video. If the first combination doesn't read right, we change a size and shoot it again. This is not a render and not a stock image — it is the stones you would be buying.
• 3 · You confirm. Show the photo to your client if you need to. Adjust the sizes, ask for a different side-stone shape, ask to see it rotated. Then we write the list back to you — shape, exact mm, quantity per size — and you check it before anything is packed.
• 4 · We inspect, film and ship. The parcel is hand-inspected, filmed before dispatch, packed in individual compartments and shipped worldwide with duties prepaid. Stones in stock normally leave within 24 hours of the list being agreed.

What to send us

• The picture of the piece, or the piece you're copying.
• The main stone — its mm dimensions, or its carat weight, or a photo of it on a scale card. If you don't have a main stone yet, say what carat weight the client asked for.
• What you're making — halo, three-stone, eternity band, tennis line, pavé cluster. The layout changes which side-stone shapes work.
• Anything you already know — a size that must match an existing piece, a metal colour, a deadline.

You don't need to send a spreadsheet, and you don't need to name a tolerance. Every stone we cut or supply is calibrated to ±0.1 mm as standard.

How many stones a design actually takes

Counts are easier to reason about than carat weight when you're building one piece:

• A halo around a 6–7 mm centre typically takes 18–21 stones at 1.0–1.3 mm — counts by centre size →
• A pavé flower or cluster head runs 40–120 stones at 1.0–1.5 mm depending on how many petals and how far the pavé carries down the shoulders.
• A tennis bracelet at 7 inches runs about 48 stones at 3 mm, 37 at 4 mm or 30 at 5 mm; a 16–18 inch riviera necklace runs 73–80 stones at 5 mm. Full counts →
• Side stones on a ring are usually 2 to 8 stones — small emerald cuts at 2×3 mm or 2×4 mm, baguettes, trapezoids, or 3×5 mm ovals depending on the shoulder.

Order 10–15% over your count. Stones get lost at the bench, and a spare from the same lot matches; a replacement ordered three months later is a different conversation. If you want the arithmetic yourself, the free stone count calculator and the melee size chart give millimetre → carat weight → stones per carat for every shape we cut.

When the size isn't in stock

We hold the standard steps in every shape, but designs don't always land on a standard step. Non-stocked sizes can be cut to order — including main stones in specific dimensions, such as a 14×7.5 mm emerald cut for a particular setting. Custom cutting typically adds a few working days. Some non-standard dimensions need a new mould; where that applies there is a one-off mould charge, and we tell you the amount before anything is cut. Nothing is cut until you say go.

Re-ordering the same design

Keep the list we send you — shape, exact mm, quantity per size. Ordering against that list is how a second batch matches the first: same stated size, same ±0.1 mm tolerance, same D colour / VVS grade, same semi-hand cut. If you're rebuilding a piece months later, send the original list back to us rather than describing it again.

What it costs to try

Every price is listed on the site — the wholesale page has the full list by shape. Fancy shapes are sold by the stone from $1, round melee at $28 per calibrated 1-carat bag, and loose stones by the carat at $26/ct. There is no minimum order and no quotes to chase: the listed price is the price. Shipping is a flat $20 worldwide, free over $100, with import duties prepaid. Most designers start with a single piece's worth of stones before committing anything larger.

What we don't do

We don't set stones, and we don't make finished jewellery — you or your bench does that. We supply the stones, calibrated and matched, and we help you decide which ones the design needs. We supply moissanite in D colour / VVS clarity only.

Send Leilei the picture on WhatsApp — replies within one business day, usually much sooner. Or read the calibration & matching guarantee, why cheap melee doesn't match, halo stone counts, tennis & eternity counts, choosing side stones, setting type & tolerance, or browse calibrated melee.

Frequently asked questions