Greetings all Here’s a question for those that have had experience in
making diamond rings with the diamonds floating in between two clear
panels. How do you do it?
I have a client that wants a small engagement ring with three 0.03
- 0.05 point diamonds set in tubes and then able to float around
between two clear plates of ? safety glass? white sapphire? You’ve
seen them I’m sure.
In all the time I have been making jewellery I must confess, it has
never occurred to me how such are made.
Any ideas out there?
Regards
William Russell in beautiful Cairns Australia
Hello William: Not too many floating diamond ring builders on this
forum. I have never made such a ring. I have seen this type thing in
a watch before, but did not look at it very closely as I was just
doing a battery change. I would imagine that the diamonds would have
to be tube set and that the tube would have to not only be longer
than the point or culet of the diamond but also tall enough to keep
the table of the stone from touching the clear plates. I believe the
clear plates on the watch I saw were plastic because they were
scratched alittle. I would say that if you could get some saphire
watch crystals to use you would be better off. Let me know how it
turns out.
Michael R. Mathews Sr. Victoria, Texas USA JACMBJ
Hi,
This is correct - I had one of these watches to work on a while ago.
In the case of the watch I had, it was a high quality modern one - 18
carat gold and real diamonds and cost around 15000UKP. In this case
the diamonds were set in patinum tubes which were stepped internally
to seat the diamonds which seemed to be simply pressed into place as
there was no sign of beading, adhesives etc. The tubes were just
slightly longer than the overall depth of the stones and the
’glasses’ they were enclosed in were synthetic sapphire. In this
watch, the diamonds floated freely in an annulus around the movement
so these ‘glasses’ were like washers with a hole in the middle which
the watch movement casing fitted into. I would never have considered
the watch ‘pretty’ and wouldn’t normally have had such a watch to
work on (nasty modern quartz!!) but I was asked by one of our top
local jewellers to help him out as he had taken the watch in to
replace the battery and was too nervous to try to refit the watch
back which was very tight!!
Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield, UK