Collection of 52 rings, "Gem-Setting"- more "Florentine Techniques" .

 While I was just reviewing my library of "Diamond Setting Essays", I came across a monumental array of important Diamond Setting files. Even I was amazed at how many I had in this one folder.

 These files are dated (from 20+ years ago) but still so very important to you, even in today's world. With every photo, as before, I will be explaining all of the techniques involved with each photo.

  This 'first collection' has only 22 photos.

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  This pendant was like a "bowl of diamonds". All I had to do was bead-set them, along with a few more on the outside 'lip'.

 I know that this has been seen on various occasions. I wanted to let you know that some of the most delicate settings can be started even without setting any gemstones. 

 These little "squares" that were designed were planned that way. How could I manage such ornamental cutting, if the stones were already set?

 Those 'blue' spots were marked as a guide prior to drilling on that

 recessed area of the nameplate.

   It is here that I pre-drilled for the Pavillion-cuts of the diamonds. At the horizontal bars is where the Flat graver will have a chance to create beads.

 With those "ink markings", they gave me a guide & location to drill holes for the many Rubies. 

 This "MIAMI-DOLPHIN" clearly shows the many sizes of Diamonds. It also clearly showed the (rudimentary) CAD lines in the pattern.

 "G - L" are my initials, I set those gemstones just to make it look cute!

"Eye love you", I had to avoid any line cutting, just using beads that were pressed down into the metal. The client created the outline on his disk.

 This process of setting is named "Shared Claws". It's where one bead is sharing two stones. Please use a bud-shaped bur to separate the mini-claws further. The fast-rotating bur cleans the metal with equal opportunity.

 These .15point diamonds were held into place by having the claws bent towards each other. They must not be moved at an angle.

 Then a "77B" Cup-bur will round off all of the claws. Option #2, is to cup-bur the tips prior to the setting process.

 These are my assortment of burs just to turn this ring into a smooth textured surface. The large Bud-Shaped bur is used ONLY to open up the hole for the stone Pavillion.

 For a ring box, I planned to use a "Rose-Wood", why this colour? Planning and buying a box is necessary for the gift-giving process. 

 For a $10,000.00 ring, what's wrong with a $15.00 gift box?

 DON'T BE CHEAP or dollar foolish.

  Imagine setting Princess diamonds, but 9 of them in one ring, with mini-claws? What were the problems?

 

 How about 9 diamonds with 4 claws each with 36 chances of either 1) Breaking the claws, 2) Chipping the stone corners, or even 3) Setting any stone crooked? 

 

 What about attempting to Bright-Cut the inside of the 36 walls of the 9 squares? This was a Difficulty Scale of 25 out of 10.

 Do you notice the very thick Girdle of this diamond? I didn't use my HSS bur or even the 156C bur to make any bearings. The reasoning is that those two bur shapes were not for a thick Girdle stone. I used a Bud-Shaped bur instead.

 Experiment with other setting options and remember them for future reference.

   This CAD casting was a great opportunity to keep the setting processes alive! Even when after 20+ years I can still remember the setting techniques.

 I examined the sizes needed for placing the stones in the correct position. The code was the biggest stones of either colour went into the corners of the delicate pattern.

 Along the four walls, I chose to make little mini-beads to hold the stones in place. There were basically 2 mini-claws per stone, along the 4 walls there was ONLY ONE. I examined the stones by size for all of the four colours. Delicate sifting.

 This was an easy project to work on. Two bead-claws per stone plus a gentle Bright-Cutting around the Double-Triangles, Princess and round stones.

  I Bright-Cut any straight line along the edge. Rough castings are not permitted, this process makes the lines more clean and better well-defined, agree?

 From a blank flat plate of silver. This cutting made 4 little beads for EACH stone, an edge for Milgrain and separated the new row of holes for stone setting.

 All of the cutting and creating patterns were made before any stone got into the metal. If the stone went into the metal first, there wouldn't be any opportunity in creating any highly decorative cutting in between the holes.

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  Here is another assortment of 30 photographs.

 This was a 3 piece construction to make this ring. I chose to make the inside Azure plate of "circular rings" of another colour. You can do the same, just use your imagination. I chose Rubies mixed with Rose-gold, good idea?

 Any, or all of the inside of Channel Setting items should be Bright-Cut!!!

Don't use any sort of a file. The serrated edge will leave marks inside the Channel Wall, thus leaving no opportunity to get it highly polished.

The inside of a Princess Bezel MUST ALSO BE BRIGHT-CUT. Could you tell me how to make the End-Bezel shiny? It won't and it can't happen.

 All of the pre-cutting must be made before any stones ever get set. This will give you, the setter, a greater opportunity of digging deeper into the metal.

As in previous styles of "Fancy-Cut" stones, PLEASE DO YOURSELF A GREAT FAVOUR AND BRIGH-CUT inside of the Bezel-Frame.

 This will turn this setting process from a mediocre setting, to just BEAUTIFUL.

This great looking pair of cuff-links & tie-bar from a basic looking casting into the following (shown below).

 

 Here was the beginning of the process starting from a rough casting, to the better view shown above.

These are my gravers, much of this setting could not accomplished without both #1 & #2 Onglette gravers being used.

 If I'm to use my steel mandrel, how am I to hold or secure it to my bench. The answer is easy, why is this? On the end of almost every steel mandrel, there is a deep hole. 

 Place that hole inside and against a nail, or a 'used' bur. Then you could use that as a "third hand". You could do that by using your Reciprocating hammer.

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 Here are a group of (necessary) photos for you to see and eventually copy.

From a CAD-designed ring, I photocopied many views of a few ornate rings.

 

  This particular setting on the mount had "Shared Claws" all the way around the band. I see that this would be a major problem for the wearer. I wouldn't have the claws digging into the underneath section of the band, I'd call this very poor designing. 

 This ring had two "Trapeze-shaped" shoulder stones, a "Princess Centre" and multiple small round-shaped diamonds.

This is a very interesting Azure design pattern, all of the underside of the mount is nestling against the finger.

  This particular ring has diamonds set into the claws. This could lead to some setting problems as which diamonds to set first and what about the main Blue stone?

 I had have the multi small stones set first, then work with the bearings in all four claws. I would BEFORE SETTING THE SMALL STONES bend the claws, then the four claw-tops.

 I'd put in the Blue stone against the bent-over claw tips. Then afterwards, GENTLY set the Blue stone to have it secured.

  Don't put any slightest pressure against the soft Blue stone, this could lead to breakage, or chipping.

 It is very difficult to bur away space to the claws after setting. That is why I chose to do this "spacing process" before setting of the stones.

 As this item was a CAD-designed pendant, all of the claws are of the same height & thickness. I'd have more space in between all of the eventual setting of the stones. Please do this now, and not after setting. 

 This is my 'best' metal pusher, BRASS is quite soft to work with the gentle stones such as Diamonds, or the above mentioned Blue stone.

Additional notes on "Florentine" engraving.

 Always "cross-cut" your engraving on an angle & along the wedding band, or what ever you are using.

 You can see the two numbers on the graver "28 & 8" these numbers these numbers represent the width in 8 lines on the graver. 

 The number 28 is the (SQU)  number. The "12" is a rather fine width to work with. (The choice is yours as to what width to buy).

 You can see BOTH GRAVERS AT WORK ON THIS ONE RING. I separated the two sections with a fine "Bright-cut line". It looks better and much nicer this way to segregate the two engraving sections.

 Florentine cutting are not long lines in the metal, but a series of "short bursts of cuts" on the metal. This is more advantageous to you while cutting on a 'domed ring'.

 Start your cutting at the center of the Domed Ring on both sides of the work of the dome shape.

 This ring had a multi-use of "Fancy-Cut" stones.

 I'd set the 1) Straight-Baguettes followed with 2) Princess set stone, 3) Then the Center Gypsy stone.

 The reasoning is that you don't want any burs cutting or damaging the other (delicate) settings.

 For your ongoing setting information; I'd prepare the bearings for all of the stones then at the last point set all those stones.

 All of these rings were done in accordance with finishing my Diamond Setting with absolute quality.

 

 There were three things I tell my clients:

"SPEED, QUALITY, PRICE: Pick TWO".

"MIAMI-Dolphin" pendant. Spacing & setting of Diamonds.

 I was given the honour and privilege to turn this "undrilled, piece of gold" into something very attractive, as well as being so very ultra-expensive.

 

 These photos are 'out of sequence' but that is due to my wanting to capture every aspect of the 'drilling & spacing' sequences.

(The actual Pave setting of each stone can be viewed in other of my "blog essays").

  On the Difficulty Scale, this project is about "50-75, out of 10".

The importance of this essay is to give a greater understanding of all the spacing techniques that were involved.

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 Underneath, each hole had to be 'countersunk', thus enabling me to have a smoother surface. Not to mention opening up each hole to have as much light to pass through.

 

 

 This was not a flat plate to work on, there were flat, vertical, angled sections, and Pave sections just to set these diamonds.

 As this was a body of a Dolphin laying on a plate, I had to inspect and as well figure out "how and where" all of the Diamonds could be mounted. This was no easy task.

  In this photo, I approved of using a soft-holding, leather-inlay ring clamp. This is also for the "vertical" sections when (laid down) on the Dolphins' Torso.

WOOPS! You can see one hole that wasn't drilled sufficiently. I inserted a larger stone to offset this problem.

 

 By holding this item, you can figure out the size of this item. THIS WAS JUST ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS.

 I didn't have enough Diamonds of every size. I requested the client to ship me more large, small, and very small for the awkward process of filling in the spacing.

 If I drilled a hole out of place, my off-site jeweller had to assist me in (soldering) filling in the hole again.

   There was no intention for me to do any long lines of Bright-Cutting.

 My client shipped me an extra number of BLUE diamonds to fill in the empty spaces in the tail. He (they) also sent me more white stones for the head and beside the letter "M".

 Now comes the work of spacing. As you see that there are spaces between the row of white diamonds. The spaces provided are for me to allow for the drilling and also for bead-raising.

 If I had to juggle the spaces allowed to me, I would do this NOW. There was always a plan and a revised plan on which size to use, when & where. 

 THIS WAS A MIND-NUMBING PROJECT. 

  Concentration was paramount in every aspect of "Spacing of the Diamonds". Mistakes were NEVER allowed or EVEN permitted, every diamond was expensive. Breakage was not even thought of.

  Before any Diamond was set, I decided to examine the thickness of the metal for every stone. Why was this? If the diamond was larger, therefore the Culet would protrude through the reverse.

 Those "blue" spots on the reverse were my idea of self-examining the thickness again, or if the hole wasn't counter-sunk accurately. 

  If my deep concentration faltered, I'd have to stop, have a cuppa tea and take a 'mental break'.

 

  In this photo, I examined where the next series of drilling would take place.

 I'd fill in with Pave-beads where extra spaces are in between any of the diamonds.

 Those "blue" spots are where the Blue Diamonds are showing from the top.

 My "off-site" jeweller was always asking me how I was managing with this project? Sometimes he would fill in some of the holes that were not to my liking.

Here is a good close-up of the back side of this project.

  I am now preparing holes for more diamonds. I pre-drilled before I actually opened up the holes for the medium-sized stones.

 Under close scrutiny, I will endeavour to fill in any unwanted spaces with adding Pave bead-raising.

  In this photo, you can see an assortment of white diamonds around the letter "M".

 I placed a white diamond in between the many facial Blue diamonds, why?

 

 Do Dolphins have eyes? You betcha they do, and that is what I created.

 In this interesting photo, you can see the many angles I had to work with just in holding the frame I had a leather-tipped ring clamp. I also had a portable vice-clamp, I improvised every subtle way to secure during my stone settings.

 I'd run my fingers along the back surface to 'feel' if any hole was giving me problems. This procedure was 100% necessary and required. If I didn't do this, my client wouldn't be happy with my 'finishing'.

 This wasn't Tripoly & Rouge polished yet, but still, it looks spectacular, agree?

  You can see the many sizes of Diamonds that I had to deal with. If one stone is missing, that is because the size was wrong and it had to be removed as soon as possible.

  The size of this plate was enormous, and it made my hands sometimes tired from holding the metal clamp for long periods of time.

  

 I had to modify the little pegs to grab onto the disk. Again, you see the many angles that I had to do my Diamond setting. There were horizontal (Flat), to a 45degree, then to a near vertical. 

  I don't remember the number of days this project took me.

 The white spot (on the Dolphin's Torso) was a reflection of sunlight.

  I used different background views, here but are a few. I enjoyed using different colour schemes and contrasts.

 My client didn't send me enough of any smaller Blue diamonds, hence you are seeing an inordinate amount of spaces. I had to deal with what he sent me!

 I initially wanted more stones around the "M". I had to have my jewellery fill those spots that were originally allocated for them. Ask me about being '100% stressed'.

 Oh, I wished that I had one size smaller of the Blue diamonds as spaces on this particular item, was my ongoing enemy.

 Hoping that you appreciated my labours in Diamond Setting this somewhat challenging and difficult project.
 Gerrylewy18@gmail.com