Gem & Jewelry Industry

Pave Setting - Hand Set versus Pre Cut

I thought I'd devote this blog entry to my why my setter Pierre has lost his hair.  Or so he says: by hand setting my tiny little and very soft glittery colored stones into hard metal castings that aren't ready made for the fast setting type that is the standard nowadays.
Let's first talk about how stones are set for commercial jewelry production. With most rings and other pieces nowadays being...
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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...
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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...
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