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Stone Setting Rings: Flush, prong, channel

Three rings set with three different stone setting techniques: flush, channel, and prong.

Three Bottleneck Rings set with three stones setting techniques. Sterling silver, white topaz, sapphire, peridot, aquamarine.
Three “Bottleneck” Rings set with three stones setting techniques. Sterling silver, white topaz, sapphire, peridot, aquamarine.
Tool parts for flush setting small round stones
Tool parts for flush setting small round stones

The steel part was made from a spent flex shaft mandrel. The business end of the steel is the part closest to the handle. Below is the tool put together.

Flush setting tool for small round stones
Flush setting tool for small round stones

The first ring with flush set stones was made by carving wax into the shape of an ocean tumbled glass bottleneck. The lost wax casting process produced a sterling silver ring which I molded. The original ring was set with stones as seen below.

Bottleneck Ring: sapphire, peridot, white topaz, sterling silver
“Bottleneck” Ring: sapphire, peridot, white topaz, sterling silver

After making more wax bottleneck rings with the mold, I modified the waxes to produce a ring to which I could add a prong setting. The first ‘real’ prong setting project for me was this peridot.

Bottleneck Ring with Prong Set Peridot
“Bottleneck” Ring with Prong Set Peridot

The channel set ring below was created from the same bottleneck mold; this time I cut the wax in half before casting the piece in sterling. The aquamarines are set on 2/3rds of the ring.

Bottleneck Ring channel set and flush set aquamarines
“Bottleneck Ring” channel set and flush set aquamarines

By creating an organic shape for the channel I made the work challenging for myself.  🙂

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Valentino, Tiffany, Fabergé, and Lalique

I had a very enjoyable day recently admiring other peoples artwork. First was Valentino: The Last Emperor this is a *great* movie and the producer/director was at the showing to answer questions. With an initial limited release, the movie is playing in 25 cities. During the Q&A , journalist turned indie movie producer/director Matt Tyrnauer told the audience that they are currently making more copies of the movie because theaters all over the country are calling and asking to show it. On the movie’s website they suggest that you contact your local movie house and ask them to bring “Valentino” to their screens.

Yes, the movie is about the world of fashion, yet it is mostly about the relationship between Valentino and his lifelong business partner who took care of everything else so that Valentino could concentrate on his art. The movie is also about the financial sector’s takeover of fashion houses for purse and belt profits.




Our next stop was the Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique exhibit where the quality of the work was truly awesome. As with much traditional ‘high end’ jewelry, there was an abundance of incredible stones. The enameling was thin and perfect, with many flawless examples of the guilloché (l’art de l’émail translucide sur guilloché) technique. 

View from Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
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Back to Work

The vacation is over and it’s back to making jewelry. Time to take the earring out of the thermoform plastic shellac and finish it.

 

The thermoform plastic shellac hardens when cooled or at room temperature, and softens when immersed in hot water. The material becomes clear and pliable. To remove the earring, I heated up a container of hot water, immersed the whole assembly and removed the earring from it’s plastic shellac jig. 

When cooled back down again, the plastic shellac starts turning back white, and becoming firm. To re-use it again, simply immerse it in hot water, insert the piece to be worked on, and cool it back down again.