Jewelry Arts Institute’s Student of the Week-Laurie Grossman

by jeanettecaines on January 11, 2011

Sterling silver and 22k gold ring with rutilated quartz

Sterling silver and 22k gold ring with rutilated quartz

 Congratulations to our latest Student of the Week-Laurie Grossman.  Her ring is sterling silver and 22k gold and her stone is rutilated quartz.  There was a bit of a challenge in setting the stone so I thought we might discuss some of the elements of setting cabochons.

  Cabachons are generally considered easy to set but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few pitfalls.  A 1/3 to 2/3rds rule is what we use when we get ready to set. One third of the stone in the bezel and two thirds of the stone outside the bezel.  This proportion will normally work very well.  However, if the sides of the stone don’t slope much and are more vertical then you would want to put a little more than one third of the stone inside the bezel.  A vertical surface is much more difficult for the bezel to hold onto than a slope which is biggest at the bottom.  The second and more problematic issue students run into is when there stone is a bit curved on the bottom.  There is an easy setting solution for this but the main problem is that students often don’t pay attention to the bottom of the stone.  Then when they start setting, the stone won’t stop rocking and they can’t understand why.  Stone cutting has improved dramatically over the last 20 years but you will certainly still find stones cut this way.  This way of cutting maximizes the stones end weight which is good for the cutter.  It may also have been done to maximize color saturation in the stone.  Now to the easy solution.  You fit a fine silver wire inside the perimeter of the bezel.  You choose the thickness of your wire depending on the depth of the belly to hold the belly up and off the bottom of your bezel.  Your wire is just an inner bezel and you can then just set normally.  A very simple solution.  The main thing is to notice that you need it.  Laurie did a wonderful job here following these guidelines.  Well done!

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