Gem Setting Revisited

I have written about setting gems before, but in lieu of the fact that so much of my business is now custom, here are a few of the most important considerations worth having at your fingertips.

1. What metal should I use?

The softest metal is Sterling Silver, but setting costs are high in the US, so my personal view is that doing custom setting in the US in silver is a waste of your money.  Gold is better.  Yellow gold is the softest of the gold metals, white gold is the hardest, rose the most brittle.  So for soft stones, yellow is best. If you have a soft(er) or brittle stone that you really don’t want to get busted and want to use a white metal, splurge on Platinum.  That’s what I recommend for Paraiba tourmaline for instance.  Platinum is softer than white gold.

Note, however, that in the US,  most standard settings available only come in 14K yellow and white gold. Rose gold and also platinum are often special order and special orders are not refundable in the wholesale world, meaning that when I buy it I cannot return it.

2. What setting style is best?

If you want your stone to be kept safe during setting, use prong style.  That is easiest to do and least risky to the stone.  Sadly, if you want your stone to be safe after setting it, you want to bezel it, especially if it is a ring.  Silver prongs fold easily but bend open easily too, I counsel against them for rings unless there is some protection around it, like a halo (my settings are designed with thicker prongs too).  Bezel settings for faceted gems use the hammer setting method where the metal is literally hammered over the stone with a small electrical hammering tool (the ones for cabochons use thinner metals and can be folded without hammering, the problem there is that you need a very exact fit and that means most bezels have to be made by hand, which costs more).  This won’t work for very soft stones in gold (kyanite, apatite, sometimes emerald), so you can be stuck with using prong settings.  To help secure the stone, you might consider 8 prongs instead of four.

4 Prong Setting

Bezel Setting

8 Prong Setting

An alternative to both that I use, but that requires more expertise, is a beaded setting, or pave.  This is a kind of bezel setting (bezel on the outside) but little bits of metal are shoved over the gem to hold it down (so like prong setting).  The beading tools are sharp so that’s a risk but the gem is very protected after wearing.  My pave pieces are done by hand, so the “prongs” aren’t in the CAD.  This has a more handmade look but that’s how more high end stuff is made and when you have a great setter (I LOVE mine), you will get a nicer result than the commercial look.

Pave Setting

3. Are there other setting styles?

Yes, there is burnished or gypsy setting, which is like a bezel setting but into a flat surface, the metal is then rubbed over the stone.  This cannot be done with anything over 3mm and it cannot be done with soft gems. 

Gypsy Setting
Photo from www.ashford.com

There is channel setting.  This involves bending channel wire (imagine a straw sliced in half) around a gem.  That’s done by lazer because you have to solder the two ends together.  It can take up to an hour a gem and is very expensive (my retail price is $120 a piece!).  Channel setting works only for pendants and earrings because the back will poke out, but it offers a very delicate look.  Gems with more than one corner can’t be channel set because the metal isn’t pliable enough.  The corner is used for the soldering seam.  So rounds, ovals, and pears work, not emerald or princess cuts.

Channel Setting

4. I want to buy my own setting, what can I expect?

In the US market, expect to be restricted to 14K yellow or white gold and some silver (not much).  Get prong settings for faceted stones because bezels have to be fitted very exactly and if you order online you won't have the gem on hand.  Prong settings allow a little more give (.5mm at most).  When in doubt, buy the larger prong setting, not the smaller one.  For cushion gems, use round.  For elongated cushions, use emerald settings because there are hardly any cushion settings available anywhere. 

Specialty shapes: expect problems.  Many shapes just require custom jobs.  But if you have one you like, the cheapest way to go is doing a pendant and starting with a setting that can be adjusted a little (like narrowing down a pear to an elongated pear, or a trillion for an off shaped trillion). 

And one final note on using old settings: most settings are made for diamonds and those are not as deep as colored stones for the most part.  And since prongs get clipped to accommodate the gem, you may not have much room to work with.  Prongs can also get brittle with age, and they can break upon or after resetting.  So it may not pay to reset unless you have a more expensive ring.  Don't reset if it is pave style or if you don't see enough prong or bead to put back over the stone.  

Designing Halos with Melee Gems

In the past year, my business has increasingly developed toward custom projects and quotes.  This brings with it a lot of design challenges, and in order to simplify matters a bit on my end, let me share with you some useful information about gemstone melees and how to think about designs involving them.  A melee is considered any gem that is 3mm and smaller. 

First, note that not all gems come in all sizes.  For anything under 1mm, there are really just diamonds available.  Most colored stone melees come in 2mm and up, sometimes 1.5mm and up, and not everything comes in melee.

To calculate the weights of diamond melee, you might use a chart like this one:

Colored gems are often a little bit deeper and a little bit denser in their structure, so they weigh more, too.  The most easily available colored stone melee are sapphires and rubies, but as you know from my shop I also have many others: aquamarine, zircon, mandarin garnet, color change garnet, spinel, tsavorite, mint garnet, peridot, tanzanite, chrysoberyl, among others.  I collect melees because I use them a lot in designs, but for the most part, they are not readily available on the gemstone market.  I don't have all of these in all sizes so you'll have to ask.  Some are hard to replace (i.e. chrysoberyl) and lucky buys, others (sapphires, ruby, tanzanite) I can get almost all the time.

Setting:  the most common setting styles for melees is pinpoint and pave (especially the smaller sizes).

1. Pinpoint setting: this is easier and faster for a setter, hence cheaper - tiny prongs are directly entered into the CAD file.  But making a CAD model with ooodles of tiny prongs is time consuming and expensive.  So it's a wash more or less.

Sapphire Ring with Pinpoint Setting

2. Pave setting: this involves drilling individual holes in the metal and shoving tiny beads over the gems.  The risk here is more breakage, and it costs more time (and money).  The CAD model usually involves a flat surface only.  Sometimes we also put the holes into the model (good for bigger melee, like 2mm). This saves a little on metal weights.  There are two basic pave styles:

a) Bright Cut: This involves a straight line of metal on each side of the gem.  This line has a standard thickness of 1mm.  So if you want bright cut pave on your ring shank, you calculate the width of the melee plus 1mm on each side.  So the smallest is 3mm for a shank.  The bright cut can be millgrained, which is very common these days.  Millgrain often costs a bit extra.  

b) Cut down: this involves no rim, the sides of a ring shank (or halo) are cut down into little scoops with a resulting look almost like prongs.  Cut down pave will look like "all diamond" from the top, so a 3mm ring shank will need 3mm gems, and from the top you will basically just see gemstone and a little bit of prong.  Cut down pave can be expensive because you need bigger stones for a good look, but you can also do a very fine shank with 1mm gems that looks like all diamond.  There are different forms of cut down styles, the one pictured here is a simple scoop, but there are others, like fish tail, or Tiffany style.  You can google them on the web.

Paraiba Tourmeline Ring with Diamond Pave and Millgrain

Closeup of Cut Down Pave with Millgrain

Mint Garnet Ring with Cut Down Pave

Close Up of Cut Down Pave

Note that jewelry design is three dimensional, so you also need to consider the depth of a stone.  On average, a gem is 2/3 as deep as it is wide.  So a 1mm gem is .66 deep.  That's the depth you need for the shank in that case.  Colored stones are deeper.  As a result, you may need almost 3mm depth for a 3mm colored gem, and that makes for a very thick ring or pendant.  In a pendant with a larger center this is less noticeable but a ring shank that is too thick may look weird.

Now let's talk about halo styles more specifically.  A halo is a ring of melee (usually diamonds) around a larger center stone.  Halos add a lot of sparkle, an extra color, and generally enhance the look of a gem.  Standard halos are about 1mm or smaller in size because of the diamond cost.  But you can also go larger for a different look.  The trick is knowing how many gems of what size can fit around a center stone.  Here are some layouts we did for you to see how many options there are for just rounds and ovals (and only a few diamond sizes):

Round Melee Layout

Here's the downloadable layout sheet for you.  The sheet will print out to scale so you can lay gems on it upside down to see which layout they fit.  Printable Round Melee Layout Sheet

Oval Melee Layout

Here's another downloadable layout sheet that will print to scale: Printable Oval Melee Sheet

The next thing you should do is calculate the cost of your halo.  You do this by adding up the total carat weight of the diamonds you use, once you know the gem size you want.  Then you need to know the per carat price of the gems you are using, which is why I've added a rough guide below.  Most colored stones are not very expensive and much of the price is the cutting cost.  Diamonds are another story.  This is a table with two prices, slightly lower end and more fine quality goods.  For up to 2.5mm or just above, prices are usually the same per carat.  3mm involves a price jump.  I have calculated this at my standard markup, so other sellers may have different prices.

F/G Color VS Quality, Swiss Cut	G-H Color, SI Quality, Standard Cut
Below 3mm: $1800/ct Retail	Below 3mm: $1400/ct
3mm: $3600/ct	3mm: $2500/ct

Is there more you'd like to know?  Do you have suggestions for blog entries that help your design efforts?  Please let me know here in the comment box, via FB or Etsy.  I'd love to hear your suggestions.

My thanks to Brandy Belenky, my CAD designer, for helping me with this entry and doing the layouts.

Stone Setting by Pierre

I am slowly learning how to add little video clips to my blog so here is my first one.  It was my practice piece but then I thought it came out nice enough to share.  In this video, Pierre explains how he is prong setting 3mm diamonds into a diamond eternity band.  First he opens the ring up underneath, then he drills the seat, pops in the diamond and gently pushes the prongs over the stone.  They pop into place perfectly.  And the end, Pierre shapes the prongs into perfectly round little “balls” for an even appearance.

As most of you already know, there are many different kinds of setting techniques, and each takes a separate set of tools and a separate skill set.  Simple prong setting is the easiest, and it is least harmful to the stone.  In his office, Pierre is equipped with a huge microscope, flex shafts, beading and millgrain tools, clamps of all types, ultrasonic, and who knows what else.  To be fully equipped, especially for setting micro pave under a scope, you need to invest several thousand dollars.

Pierre has been in the jewelry trade since he was 14, and has decades of experience just setting stones.  Still, some of my gems present unique challenges to him.  Most setters set diamonds, or rather, most of what is set in industry are diamonds, and those are hard to break.  Many colored gems can get scratched or chipped by the tools that are needed to push the metal over the gem and file down the prongs, so a very steady hand is needed, and gems do break on occasion.  That’s why setters do not guarantee the stones they set.  Too much risk is involved and insurance is crappy and expensive.  It is therefore best to go over your project with the setter carefully, making sure the gem can withstand the tools that are needed for the particular setting job.  Gems are inspected for inclusions or cracks which can present additional risks.

Another challenge is getting a tiny piece of jewelry to stay in place and not bend or move while the setter works on it.  Rings are the easiest because you can put them into the clamp, but pendants sometimes have to be set in shellac, or setting cement, a wax like substance that melts when warmed up.  To remove the shellac, the jewelry piece has to be warmed up in water and then cleaned in the ultrasonic.  Sometimes stones break during that process – I once had an aqua pendant that cracked because it got overheated while the shellac was being removed.

An image of Pierre and I my assistant took while i was shooting the above video :) 

Customers often wonder why setting costs so much.  One reason is the equipment, plus there is the rent on 47^th street that has to be paid (figure on maybe $2000 a month for a small office).  And then it takes time.  Setting a pair of earrings may take only 10 minutes, but pave setting an entire ring can take an afternoon.  So if a setter charges $300 for that job he is within his rights.   I generally pay gladly for good work, but for my markup it presents a problem of course.  Technically, the setters I use make jewelry that goes for thousands of dollars, not hundreds, and so the setting cost can be more easily absorbed.  On the other hand, I find nice setting work addictive, and I like my gems to be hugged by prongs that got filed down into tiny claws, or perfectly rounded so they look like beads (you can see how that works in the video).  

Breaking an Apatite. Or: How Observation can Interfere with Experiment

So I had the brilliant idea of taking snapshots while my setter, Pierre, set an apatite into my new silver halo ring.  Dark blue sapphire outside, turquoise center, it was going to look fabulous.  Pierre has some very fancy setting equipment.  At his bench there is a huge microscope with very strong lighting that costs several thousand dollars, surrounded by lots of other smaller gadgets.  I guess you need that when you routinely set expensive gems.  Luckily, my apatite had only cost me about $20. 

Ring Inside Ring Holder

First, Pierre carefully clamped my ring into a ring holder, cushioning the outside of the shank with tissue so wouldn’t get marred.  The ring has to sit tight in order for the pressure from setting not to dislodge it.  Then Pierre separated the double prongs.  During casting, prongs that sit close together often have metal in between them, and it is cut apart with a separator disc.  Then the prongs are shaped into claws and the seat is drilled: that’s a little groove on the inside of each prong where the girdle of the gem will rest.  I like my gems set low, and the apatite fit perfectly into the opening.

Separating the Prongs

Unfortunately, the lighting of his microscope was so strong that my iPhone couldn’t cope, so I asked Pierre to lower it.  Which he promptly did, but not without mentioning that he could no longer really see what he was doing.  I should have taken that as a cue.

Having placed the apatite into the ring, Pierre proceeded to push the prongs over the gem with his metal bezel pusher.  

Pushing the Prongs over the Stone

As a final step, he rubber wheeled the prongs.  This means sanding them down with a soft rubber disc so that the places where he marred the metal with the bezel pusher – something which is unavoidable – are filed back out.  Normally this is the tricky step because you don’t want the rubber wheel to scratch the stone. 

Rubber Wheeling the Prongs

As it turned out, in this case, the moment during which the little apatite incurred major damage was minutes earlier.  It happened shortly after the light was turned off in order to accommodate my iPhone.  Ahem.  The third photo shows you approximately when Pierre chipped it. 

Long story short, my apatite didn’t live.  And now there’s a pretty tourmaline in the center of that same ring.  So that’s how it goes.  Apatite is risky business.  With a sapphire, this would probably not have happened.  But from now on, I’m not going to ask Pierre to work in the dark! J

Chip in Girdle on Right Next to Where the Prong Would have Been (Plus Scratches You Can't See)

Working with Cabochons and Rose Cuts

If you are used to working with only faceted stones, you’ll find that cabs and rose cuts are an entirely different animal.  Very little of what you know transfers over to the non-faceted gem world.  Cab pricing and weighs are different, they are judged on a different scale, and most commercial settings don’t work.

First, be aware that cabs and rose cuts are not usually clean gems.  The facet grade rough is – well – faceted, and cabs are the next grade down before rose cuts and then beads.  Cabochon material is therefore rarely as clean as faceted stones.   The quality often ranges from very good (near facet grade) to very poor (totally dead and opaque).  Obviously, I don’t recommend the latter.  Cabs don’t have brilliance either, rather, when set right, they glow, despite inclusions.  Cabs usually rank better in terms of glow than rose cuts because the facets of rose cuts don’t let the gem be as bright.  And of course the term “window” doesn’t apply because to not have window, you need back facets.  Technically, therefore, all cabs and rose cuts have window. 

Spinel Rose Cuts

When you buy cabochons, you can expect a lower per carat price than for faceted stones, but you also need to expect them to weigh more.  On average, cabochons weigh twice as much as faceted stones in the same size.  The exception are rose cuts, because they are flatter and the top facets remove extra weight.  The facets hide flaws, however, so your expectations of a rose cut should be lower than that of a cabochon.  Rose cuts usually weigh about the same as faceted stones.  Often, though, a high quality cab and a low quality faceted stones can come out the same in terms of price.

Finding the right setting for cabochons can be challenging.  Even calibrated stones often do not fit the settings that are fabricated for their size.  Many are too high so that the bezel wall doesn’t fold over right; or they are too low so that the stone vanishes under the bezel wall.  Yet others are slightly too big or too small – the latter applies to rose cuts in particular.  The smaller the cabochon, the more problematic it is if it doesn’t fit right.  So when you choose cabs, watch for high dome and low dome, as the terminology goes.  If you have a bezel already, bring it with you when you buy the stone and see how the stone looks in it. 

Round Commercial Bezels

Add to that, that many cabochons are not calibrated in the first place.  So you have to expect to be making the bezel by hand.  This is even more the case for rose cuts, which are often cut in irregular shapes, just following the natural lines of the material.  The expectation is that for either, you will make your own setting, or have it made. 

When I make bezels for cabs and rose cuts, I usually do a closed back.  I find that many gems look washed out when there is no metal behind them.  The light simply passes through them and that dulls the color.  The exception, for me, is when I channel set cabs for earrings, because then I like the light to pass through.  A ring or a necklace has your skin behind it at all times, and that doesn’t help the stone reflect out.  In earrings, that is not a concern.

Square and Oval Cabochons, Cabochon Bullet