Setting expensive stones in silver

The price of gold hasn’t fallen much since it spiked. For many years it fluctuated between $300 and $400, but since the big spike our new reality is $1000 plus. So it’s not surprising that for many people gold just isn’t on their radar.

Janet Kofoed

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Hi Jim - - sorry I haven’t answered your questions earlier…I haven’t checked the forum in quite a while.

The stones I’m thinking of are diamonds and sapphires. I want to make an engagement ring. I’m thinking of one carat stones and small, 2 mm stones. I work in sterling silver because I can’t afford gold at this stage of my business.
I’m not doing client work per se…but do plan to sell my work.

I am aware that silver is softer than gold but I don’t have any practical experience with gold, so I don’t know how one should design in silver to compensate for the softness.
Based on some of the other comments here, I take it prong settings might be tricky. Helen said “thicker prongs” would be needed…how thick is thick enough?

Or, would it be crazy to solder a white gold prong setting into a silver ring?
What about bead or gypsy setting?

It was in 2011 that governments and the EU were allowed to participate in the gold market on speculations. That is why at first it spiked. With each country that has affected the gold market had difficulties with their economies you see gold being dumped to rescue that particular currency. This short term brings gold back down. Only if governments are once again halted from market speculations on precious metals will you see a lowering of the gold market once again. Governments are doing now what the Hunt Brothers did back in the 90’s to manipulate the silver market. Sad they went to prison, yet nothing is being done to the willful manipulations of the metals markets today

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If you don’t mind me asking, which countries do you believe have sold off gold to protect their currencies in the last 10 years and what entity do you think barred governments from participating gold market prior to 2011?

Thanks,
Erich

@nan1

I remember a case where gypsy set stones fell out of a sterling ring within a few months of purchase. The customer never took the ring off. Maybe it was poor setting technique, but I suspect the sterling stretched.

The customer was overwhelmingly disappointed because she loved the ring and the maker.

This customer’s reaction convinced me to never do a gypsy setting in a sterling ring, well, no, actually it convinced me to never do a gypsy setting.

I would argue that a well set stone in a Gypsy setting, in any metal, is about as safely set a gemstone as you can get. There is a reason that this style of setting was popular for men’s rings, especially for pinky rings, which get rather extreme wear.

With Gypsy set gems, you are not relying on prongs which can bend and wear, but the entire girdle of stone is covered and protected by metal. If a stone “pops out” of such a setting it was not correctly set to begin with, but just lightly held by insufficient metal coverage around the circumference of the crown

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Before the big rise in the price of gold I worked primarily in 18k and platinum. Now 75% of my work is in silver. Don’t use silver for prongs it is too soft. Do bezel setting, flush mounting and bead set or bead and bright cut. There is nothing wrong with soldering gold findings to silver. White or yellow. I even set precious stones in silver now. Good old David Yurman made that ok for us to do now. The knew Continum silver from stuller is nice. Much harder than anything else on the market now. It is a silver and palladium blend. I also clear powder coat many of my pieces to protect them from tarnish.

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Normally, and I mean normally Gypsy/Flush setting is one of the safest methods in setting a stone. If the stone fell out there are reasons why this did happen. The stone was not lowered into the hole enough to literally ‘grab’ all of the “Crown Facets” or the Girdle. If any Bright-Cutting was attempted, I suppose too much metal was removed in this singular process. BTW, the ‘table’ of the stone must be flush (or even lower) with the surrounding metal, if not the stone will for sure indeed pop-out!!!
What you are looking at ( in this photograph) is an incomplete setting, the finishing in cleaning has not occurred at this time.
When I am teaching this process, I use (.925) silver at all times, please do not get discouraged with this easy-to-use metal…another point is that the girdle of the stone MUST be much lower and this is to allow for hammering (as shown) and using a pumice wheel.

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Ooooh…Clear powder coating…Great idea! How much thickness does it add, for example, if doing a ring does it impact how you size it?

Please tell us about your clear powder coating.
Thanks,
Dick Stromberg
Ah Mexico! Where “C” on a faucet means HOT, and “M” on a restroom means THE LADIES ROOM.

These two silver items were set with the “Set-In-The-Wax” process. These looked easy & they were even much easier to set. Each stone took me about 10 seconds to place into the wax item. If I set by hand hand, each ring would take me about one hour, why so long? I had to gauge the depth, secure one stone (at a time) then so lightly hammer the metal over the girdle of that stone…(but not finish) then go to another of the 12 stones, with 13 stones in each item. Setting all stones in wax took me about maximum 2-3 minutes, I had to be very sure none of the stones went too deep into the soft wax!!!
All of these stones were “Swarovski” CZ’s & had a 8.75+ on the “Moh’s Scale of Hardness”. After all of the stones were secured & hammered I cleaned up everywhere with a flat-faced, Pumice Wheel of #180 grit. I had to make darn sure the ‘double-axis’ of curves were kept…that is in the length & width. Not too mention that I used the graver to cut around the stone/metal, but not too much as to remove any of the precious metal holding the stone as this is a very delicate manoeuvre. Setting this style of rings is not easy in metal, that is just why I chose to work in the wax system. Loads easier & faster!!!

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If you want to stick with silver for your settings I’d use Continuum. After soldering or casting and before setting simply put the pieces in a kiln at 800 F for 40 minutes and the immediately quench. Prepolish and set away. It is my choice for silver that will get a lot of use and wear. Twice the cost of sterling but when setting expensive stones better to spend more up front rather than replacing an expensive stone later. Plus once a stone falls or gets knocked out the customer looses faith and is not likely to be a repeat client.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

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David Yurman apparently made it okay to set expensive stones in sterling silver. For me, it was the price of gold that made it okay to set decent stones in silver. Gold is unfortunately prohibitively expensive for me to work with, which is a shame, as I really like its working properties. I (or my husband) used to buy the occasional 18k ring with nice stones for myself from a particular company. Now, for the same price, they sell gold plated silver rings with cheaper, nasty looking stones! I think most makers have changed the way they think about using silver with quality stones.

Helen
UK

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No it is a thin coating but very durable. No matter what you put on a ring it doesn’t last long enough.

It is a powder that is sprayed on with an electrostatic spray gun and baked in an oven. Very easy and not expensive to do.