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Hello,
I don't do much 'dainty' jewellery (think it's because I'm an utter tomboy)...but have been asked to make a cocktail ring.
My question - how difficult is it to make a basket setting with prongs (for an octoganol faceted stone), bearing in mind I am
a)insanely clumsy
b)see a)
Thank you in advance!! x
Dear Lydia,
You might be ale to do it first time, but if you are thinking of silver it needs to be quite heavy. In gold it could be a costly experiment. Here is one of my efforts.
Kind regards, Dennis.
Dennis,
You are an utter star - that pic is really helpful.
Can I ask you another couple (ok, few!) of questions?
On a 20x15mm stone - what size wire would you recommend
Were the legs forming your prong originally 2 pieces or 4?
And finally, does it matter where the girdle under the stone sits on the point - or should it just be enough for the stone to rest neatly on.
I'm thinking if it's a rectangular stone, it would best to make a smaller wire girdle below the stone point for the prong legs to meet on?
Really appreciated!
Well, I used triangular wire, which I had to draw down myself, 3.0 mm for the ring shanks and 2.5 mm for the uprights. You might well use a squre wire that looks right to you. The uprights were made of two V shapes, joined at the base. The additional inner ring is to prevent the setting from splaying. My 14mm dia. citrine was supported entirely by its girdle on notches made in the uprights. The pavillion and culet should be clear. Finally notches were made just above the girdle of the stone so that prongs could be formed. It is actually rather basic and I suggest you browse some books as well.
To me an octagonal stone means a nearly round stone with eight equal segments.. If really you are talking about a rectangular stone with the corners cut off, also known as emerald cut, it's a different ballgame as the placement of the claws is more critical. Kind regards, Dennis.
thanks Dennis,
I did mean emerald cut (I'm very glad you can translate my garbledness!)
I'll have some practice goes I think!
Thanks again,
Lydia
Hey Lydia, unfortunately for a non-round stone, its not quite so simple. But here is my garbled explaination
Take exact measurements of the stone - transfer this onto the sheet metal exactly. The thickness of the metal depends on the size of the stone, but you'll need reasonably thick with silver.
Saw out the shape you just transfered onto the sheet metal and file - this has to be very exact, getting it perfect at this stage makes things easier later on. For cutting out an emerald cut shape, I would first cut it to a rectangle and ensure perfect symmetry there - then remove the corners.
Now you need to saw out the interior of the little emerald shape you have until the stone sits perfectly inside with the girdle resting above the edge of the basket. This can be a little tricky, but if you very carefully look at the stone, and where it is hitting the sides of the basket, and subtract metal from there, you should end up with a good result. The sawing should be done at an angle - so the bottom should be several times wider than the top.
On the outside of the basket file the walls at a slight angle so it doesn't look so blocky and flows better with the stone.
Now you have the top basket - you have to now make a smaller version of that same thing (it can be a litle chunkier though) for the bottom of the basket.
Prongs - mark where the prongs will go (after deciding between 4 or 8). Its very important to check check check that the prongs are symmetrical, even if the stone isn't. Wonky prongs screw everything up :)
Cut into the top basket as far as neccessary so the stone will sit halfway into the prong when set. - do this for all prongs.
File the bottoms of the prongs to the desired taper and solder them first to the bottom part of the basket. Then make any neccessary adjustments before soldering the tops in place. Its best to just do one at a time and keep checking how they look, so you can make any minor adjustments.
Clean up and you have one basket setting for an emerald cut stone :) It would be so much easier with pictures :)
Dear Lucy
I have also used your method, but as I had access to an emerald shape collet block, I selected the hole that the stone fitted best, tuned the block over and photocopied it. Then I pasted the pattern onto my silver with Pritt Stick and cut down on the lines with a snap off craft knife using a ruler. The paper comes off with water, leaving good marks to cut and file to, but start with a fresh blade or it snags. Once the hole is perfect, the outer edge can be marked out with dividers.
There is an alternative, which is to make a rub down collet about 2.0mm too tall. The books tell you how to do this and if it turns out a bit wonky, it is quickly perfected in the collet block. Now cut out some shallow U shapes at the ends and at each side and you have some prongs to turn down. As the collet is tapering, there is no need for bearers.
Kind regards, Dennis.
Depending on how big the stone is you can do the bottom and top basket from one really thick piece of metal - get the shape perfect and then simply cut it in half..
one great way to get a perfect outline of the stone - is simply to superglue it down onto the metal and scribe around it once dry, just be sure to use a tiny amount of superglue so you can actually scribe on teh metal and not the glue :) I love superglue I do ;)
What book are you refering to Dennis? Very cool ring btw !
Jinks McGrath,The Encyclopedia Of Jewellery Making Techniques shows how to make tapered collets. The plan can be adapted for any number of facets, but its best to use several dividers so that you can leave each at a different setting. John Cogswell, Creative Stone Setting is a more dedicated book, but he only shows a straight sided emerald cut setting. I found a cheap offer for this one on Amazon. There is one other account somewhere, but I'm sorry I could not find it tonight. When I see a recipe my mind wanders, so once I have the general idea I make up the rest as I go along. Kind regards, Lucy, Dennis.
me too - but I usually end up with a big pile of mush :) I'm a shocking cook!
Meat and Potato pie for tea here in the US tonight - one meal I don't screw up too often!
Hi Dennis,
I've very new to this site, but wondered how I could see the picture you sent on this thread??
Thanks
Deb
Dear Debs,
I looked for it today, but was unable to find it.
The trouble is that one evening around the time of that post, i played with the Forum settings and lost all the pictures posted by me to that date. Hence the title above. Dennis.
I have done that too :dontknow:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis