Think this little bauble is a mere trinket? I guarantee that when worn you will be granted the strength of ten Ogre's and this precious little item will grant ye the learning to be quicker of wit then any Erudite. How can this be so? So you want to be a jeweler do ye? Very well. In case you be dull of wit and slow of hand I will start with the basics. First ye need to buy ye a jeweler's kit. This be the life blood of any true jeweler as it contains all the necessary tools a crafter needs. Now that you have yer kit you are ready to begin, right? Well I would recommend you speak with someone wise in his learning on many subjects such as yer guildmaster or me as we can teach ye a few pointers and save some unwanted mistakes that may cause the fool to loose more cash then they care to loose.
Now onto to basics of SILVER!
Find yerself a local merchant, like that cute lass and her sister over at the Jewelbox shop in Qeynos. Ask them about their wares and purchase yerself a bar made of the purest silver, none of that cheap stuff as my apprentices will be more then jeweler hacks, and a malachite stone of the richest color. Carefully and with tender care place the bar and stone into yer jewelers bag. Grab the tools from the kit and go to work on creating the easiest shape possible, a ring(for the slow hit the combine button with the bar and jewel in the kit). With luck ye will have created yer first piece of jewelry, a silvered malachite ring! Marvel at its beauty and depthless. What ye say? Wearing yer precious ring does nothing? Why that's because ye fergot to add the most important ingredient to the mix... magic. Aye this is now where the hard part comes in, unless ye dabble in the mystic realms or the enchanter arts, which as a jeweler I highly recommend, an enchanter will need to be found with the time, proper spells, and willingness to help.
Since I do dabble a bit in the mystic arts let me see one of yer bars of pure silver. There yah go. Now let us make that same ring you made earlier again this time with an enchanted bar of silver. Just place the bar with the malachite into the kit and go to work. If you are skilled enough the magic within the bar of silver will pull out the true mystical properties of the malachite stone. Ahh fine job, ye have now created a lovely silver malachite ring that will make there wearer less likely to feel the ill effects of any poison, 'cept the kind of poison brewers make fer us.
If yer still interested in the art of crafting jewelry ye need to spend a lot of time on it. Practice in silver with a stone until you feel that working a particular gem into silver is no longer worthy of your skill (again for the slow of wit after malachite becomes trivial for you start working with silver and the next expensive gem lapis).
Yer a little low on cash? What to do with all your wonderful creations? I need not spell this out but I will SELL THEM!!! Silver jewelry tends to be hard to sell since no matter how pure the silver it can not bring out the true potential of the gem it is worked with. Ye can try selling any piece of jewelry created back to any vendor in any town but like all vendors, they are there to make profit and will never give the full price back on any jewelry created, although they price can come quite close to the total material costs. Now adventurers, of which abound in the world of Norrath, will sometimes pay handsomely for a well crafted piece of magical jewelry that suits their needs. Ask around I'm sure you will find willing customers who will pay good prices on jewelry.
Once yer skill is high enough (around 45 which is about the time silver and jade become trivial to make) it's time to move on to the next level, electrum. Why move on to electrum now when there are still more gems out there to work on with silver that are still more difficult? Simple economics young one. Although yer skills are improving ye are not a master yet. Ye can still make mistakes and loose the materials of whatever ye were trying to create. Losing an expensive Ruby which is over hundredth times the cost of a bar of electrum and malachite is much worse. And since you learn from yer mistakes, might as well make yer mistakes in a less costly fashion. Electrum being a purer metal, and much harder to wrought, will also produce finer items then what could be achieved in silver. Also the cost per making a piece of jewelry goes up as well. Switching to electrum can also be very costly and most of yer attempts will go awry in the beginning. My apprentices stick with it though, for I teach no slouches. Since electrum produces better jewelry then silver, ye will find many more customers beating a path to yer door wanting some wondrous bauble they can take home.
To increase yer skills as a jeweler in electrum, just like in silver, ye must continue to work up with more costly and richer gem stones. But once you have mastered the Peridot, it is time to move on... to gold (your skill will be about 100 and you will now be considered a master jeweler). Ahhh gold! The master of all greed! Few jewelers attain the skill to master electrum let alone attempt to master gold. Ye may now be a master jeweler in yer own right but yer learning is far from done. Gold can be very costly and very rewarding as it will bring out even more of the potential of any gemstone placed in it, after being magically enchanted to do so that is. Just like before if you wish to master gold you must continue to start with the cheapest of the gems and move up to the hardest. And just like switching from silver to electrum, switching from electrum to gold will be costly, time consuming, and will very rarely lead to any results until ye learn enough from yer mistakes to truly understand gold (and just like switching off after silver/jade to electrum, switching off to gold after electrum/Peridot will be much more cost effective in the long run the losing 100+ plat on sapphires and rubies per try compared with 12+ with gold/malachite).
Finally when ye have reach the skill to master making gold and sapphire's into a most marvelous earring, it is time to move on to the pinnacle of all metals and a height which few ever achieve, platinum (a skill of about 165). As I said before, few ever reach it here and as such you are no longer my apprentice but a peer and true jeweler in yer own right. By now many across the land will come to know yer name and the beautiful things you can create. By now all the things have I taught you should keep ye well until none can surpass yer level of expertise (a skill of 200). I now move onto a new apprentice.
--Viscar jeweler in many realms.