Diamond setting course/teacher needed. Willing to pay :)

[Frostie]

Hi all, I’ve recently got round to purchasing a scope for gem setting along with burrs gravers beading sets etc, I’m in the process of building a diy air graver as I quickly ran through my budget so a shop purchased air graver is a no no right now lol. I’m a cad/cam designer by day but I want to do some stone setting in my down time. I have all the necessary tools to set and have managed to set a few stones (around 25/30 1.5mm cz’s) in practice work but I can’t quite get the hang of it. I understand the concept of bead setting (raising beads from the metal around the stone etc) and micro prong setting (pre made holes and prongs on pieces from cad-lost wax casting methods) but it looks really messy under and not under the scope compared to a friends work who sets (his hobby) unfortunately due to his schedule he is unable to teach me how to set correctly, I’ve also set a ring I designed for myself and got casted my friend had a look at it and said it was moderate work considering I’ve had no teaching and didn’t have a scope at the time. So long story short I’m wondering if anyone on here would be able to point me in the right direction of a good beading & pave’ course (in the midlands, Leicester/Nottingham area) or even a setter that would be willing to help me out, I know the chances of that are extremely thin lol. I’m willing to pay for any serious advice or teaching of course. I don’t have a huge amount of money but I wouldn’t insult anybody with silly low ball offers either. I’m also willing to trade experience eg I’ll hapilly teach a setter how to cad/cam if that’s something they are interested in learning in exchange for their expertise on setting. Hopefully I haven’t offended anyone with my offers lol.

Thanks

F

[Dennis]

In the absence of replies, if you are near, you might consider a course at the London Jewellery School, which has had good reviews recently.
https://www.google.com/search?q=London+Jewellery+School&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b Dennis

[Frostie]

Thanks for your reply, it looks great but unfortunately London is 100 odd miles away from me, the courses look relatively short though so it’s a possibility. Thanks again :D

[ps_bond]

I went to Utrecht to learn micropavé. Alexander Sidorov has done the occasional course at Goldsmiths in London.
Sorry, but if you want more than the generic "here's how to bezel/prong/rubover set a stone" you're going to have to travel.

[ShinyLauren]

I organised two days of one to one setting tuition here and it was great. We didn't get into pave as it wasn't on my list of things I wanted to learn, but he does teach it. http://www.whitneyjewelleryschool.co.uk/#

[trialuser]

+1 for Guy above.
He also has a decent casting setup.
Very friendly chap, very flexible in teaching what you want to want to cover.

[Frostie]

Thanks for all the replies,

I’m going to contact Whitney Jewellery School today and explain where I’m up to at the moment with setting what tools I have a understanding of and own and see what I can get sorted out there. It sounds silly but I’m a very quick learner when I’m interested in something so I don’t think I’d need more than a day course, I’ve learnt everything up until now through experimentation or watching it be done once and just getting the hang of it. For example I watched vacuum casting being done once and was able to replicate what I had seen within one attempt with no explanations of why things where being done and what things where for, I’ve since researched online and have a much better understanding of what’s what. So with any luck once I have the basic rules/fundamentals of pave’ taught to me I will be able to continue practicing at home and get a decent result sooner rather than later lol.

Thanks again for all the replies :D

[josef1]

you sound in a similar position to what I was. I bought the online setting course from here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYRLYgUC8zQ . I found it helpful also I purchased the setting vidios from new approach they were expensive but you do get a free 'candy' ! I wish I had the jewellery solutions subscription first.