Finding gems in Welcome to Elderfield can be confusing because there is no obvious way to use them from your inventory, and simply reaching the Workshop does not immediately give you the option either. Gems are tied to equipment upgrading, but you first need a specific Workshop upgrade before the Anvil can actually use them.

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How to Use Gems
How to Unlock the Lapidary Table
Lapidary Table Recipe
How Equipment Upgrading Works
Should You Save Your Gems?

Use Gems to Upgrade Equipment at the Workshop Anvil

Gems in Welcome to Elderfield are used when upgrading equipment to a higher item level at the Anvil, but you cannot do this immediately. You first need to unlock and install the Lapidary Table at the Workshop's Forge upgrade platform, which adds Equipment Upgrading to the Anvil.

So if you have already collected gems and cannot figure out where to use them, you probably are not missing an inventory option. You simply have not unlocked the equipment-upgrading system yet.

The basic progression is:

Complete Molly's The Elder Gem task → unlock the Lapidary Table blueprint → craft the Lapidary Table → place it on the Workshop's Forge upgrade platform → use the Anvil to upgrade equipment with gems.

This is an important distinction because the Lapidary Table itself is not described as the menu where you spend the gems. Its purpose is to unlock Equipment Upgrading at the Anvil. If you build the table and then keep interacting with it looking for an upgrade list, go back to the Anvil instead.

Complete Molly's The Elder Gem Task to Unlock Gem Upgrades

The Lapidary Table blueprint is unlocked by completing Molly's task called The Elder Gem.

That means finding gems can happen before you actually have access to the mechanic that consumes them. I would hold onto any gems you find rather than assuming they are ordinary valuables meant to be sold just because there is currently no obvious interaction available.

Once The Elder Gem is completed and you have the blueprint, the next step is crafting the Lapidary Table and installing it in the Workshop.

There is another detail here that is easy to miss: this is not a normal piece of furniture that can simply be dropped anywhere you have room. The Lapidary Table is specifically restricted to the Workshop and the Forge upgrade platform.

So if you have crafted one but cannot place it somewhere around your farm or house, that does not mean the item is broken. Take it to the Workshop and use the Forge upgrade platform.

The Lapidary Table Requires Iron, Gold, Stone, and Wood

To craft a Lapidary Table, you need:

4 Iron Bars
2 Gold Bars
25 Stone
10 Wood

The Stone and Wood requirements are fairly modest compared with some of Welcome to Elderfield's later crafting projects, so I would mainly make sure you have the 4 Iron Bars and 2 Gold Bars ready once you start working toward The Elder Gem.

I also would not confuse the Lapidary Table with some of the game's normal crafting processors. Its value is not producing another intermediate material. Installing it expands what the Workshop Anvil can do by unlocking the actual equipment-upgrade mechanic.

In other words, the table is more like an upgrade to the Workshop itself than a machine you repeatedly feed materials into.

Gems Increase the Item Level of Your Equipment

After the Lapidary Table is installed, interact with the Anvil to access Equipment Upgrading. Gems are consumed through this system to increase an equipment item's level.

This is separate from Welcome to Elderfield's combination recipes. The game also lets you create stronger pieces of equipment by combining specific weapons, armor, bars, materials, and other items into a new recipe. Gem upgrading is instead about increasing the item level of equipment you already have.

That distinction becomes useful once you start seeing gear with numbers attached to its name. The crafting data includes equipment at a wide range of levels, including +2, +3, +5, +8, and +10 items, so item level is an actual part of the game's broader equipment progression rather than simply another name for crafting a new weapon.

I would think about the two systems differently: combination recipes determine what piece of equipment you are making, while the Lapidary Table-enabled Anvil system lets gems contribute to upgrading equipment levels.

The available crafting information does not give a reliable complete table for exactly how many of each gem is required at every item level, so I would use the cost displayed by your current Anvil rather than relying on an unverified upgrade-cost chart.

Gems Aren't the Same Thing as Every Crystal Crafting Material

Welcome to Elderfield has enough shiny crafting materials that it is easy to lump all of them together.

Items such as Green Crystals, Void Crystal Bars, Verdite Bars, Gold Bars, and other later-game resources appear directly as ingredients in specific crafting and combination recipes. For example, Quality tools use materials including Void Crystal Bars, Verdite Bars, and Green Crystals.

That is different from the Lapidary Table's stated gem mechanic, where gems are consumed specifically to increase equipment item level.

I would therefore follow the exact terminology shown by the recipe or Anvil rather than assuming anything with “Crystal” in its name can be substituted as an equipment-upgrade gem. If a crafting recipe asks for Green Crystals, save the Green Crystals for that recipe; if the Anvil's Equipment Upgrading interface asks for a gem, follow what that interface requires.

This matters more as you progress because some of those crystal-based materials are required in fairly large quantities for better tool and equipment recipes.

I Would Save Gems Until You Unlock Equipment Upgrading

If you find gems before completing The Elder Gem, I would simply put them into storage.

The lack of an obvious use early on is progression-related: the system that consumes them is locked behind the Lapidary Table. Selling or otherwise getting rid of gems because they appear useless can leave you needing the same resources again once equipment upgrading finally opens.

I would also avoid immediately dumping every gem into the first piece of equipment you can upgrade once the system becomes available. Increasing item level is useful, but Welcome to Elderfield also has a substantial equipment progression system where entirely new pieces can be crafted and combined later.

My preference would be to invest gems into equipment I actually expect to keep using rather than automatically upgrading temporary gear just because the Anvil allows it. The more quickly you expect to replace something, the less attractive spending limited upgrade materials on it becomes.

That is especially worth considering before expensive upgrades because the supplied crafting information confirms the purpose of gems but does not establish a complete current gem-cost curve or whether every upgrade investment has the same relative value. I would judge each upgrade against the gear you already have available rather than assuming higher item level is always the best use of every gem immediately.

Why You Can't Use Gems Yet

If you have gems but no way to spend them, check your progression in this order.

First, make sure you have completed Molly's The Elder Gem task and received the Lapidary Table blueprint. Next, craft the table using 4 Iron Bars, 2 Gold Bars, 25 Stone, and 10 Wood. Then take it to the Workshop and install it specifically on the Forge upgrade platform.

After the Lapidary Table is installed, go to the Anvil. That is where Equipment Upgrading becomes available and where gems are consumed to raise the item level of your equipment.

So the confusing part of gems is not really what they do. It is that Welcome to Elderfield lets you encounter the material independently from the system that eventually consumes it. Until the Lapidary Table is unlocked and installed, having a pile of gems in your inventory does not mean you are supposed to be able to use them yet.

If you are working toward everything else in the game at the same time, our Welcome to Elderfield achievements guide covers all 51 achievements and the longer requirements worth progressing early.