I got mine in the mail yesterday! Woot! Rio Grande’s new Gems and Findings catalog is out, so if you have ordered from them before you’ll probably get one in the mail soon. If you haven’t, you can order any of their catalogs through the company’s web site, or call them at their toll free number (1.800.545.6566).

Honestly, I would call them rather than go through the site for a few reasons. First of all, their site has got to be one of the worst vendor sites on the web. You have to get a special username/password from them to even be able to look anything, which I think it totally idiotic, and half the time I need to use the catalog to get the right search parameters to find anything, and that sort of defeats the purpose of using a web site in the first place. The one time I did order their the site, I guess it was user error, but I ended up ordering the wrong item. I was attempting to order dead soft wire and got half-hard instead. Also, on line it looks like they ask you to pay for the catalog, but I never have and know plenty of people who have also not had to pay for it. So, call them!

Crappy web site aside, Rio Grande otherwise is a great place to order jewelry supplies and are well-known for their quality customer service. If I had, for example, complained about the wire mix up when I ordered, more than likely they would have done something to make it up to me, but I’m not the type to complain…much. They also offer almost everything, from wire to kilns to beads. So, even though it’s tempting to price around, when you can pay for shipping costs once, sometimes it’s not worth trying to fine 10 things at 10 different places to save a few pennies. Generally, I find their prices pretty reasonable any way. Technically, they aren’t wholesale, but if you do buy in large quantities, the prices start to decrease as you buy more.

I noticed also they have a PMC catalog too on their site, which I tried to order but I don’t think it worked. Like I said, call them.