This is called a solitaire setting. Simple engagement ring style. We were given a plain pre-cast shank and the setting, also in raw form. We had to shape the shank so that it fit within the prongs of the setting, solder it together, and set the stone. Polish and make pretty. I decided to make it a little more fun by filing into the prongs. The tips are filed into points so it kind of looks like a six fingered claw holding the stone. I got a fun reaction out of one of my classmates for getting this little design in. Go me.
PROJECT 25
Finally getting around to setting this damn ring that we've re-sized and re-shanked over and over. Anyway, setting just like the practice: drill a seat into the inside of each prong, settle the stone in, pull prongs in to hold the stone. Not making a bold for project 26- simple re-polishing of the free form ring. Yawn. Project 27 & 28 were to learn how to retip a prong that has been "worn down" and reprong in the case that it may have broken off. The crap picture you see is after all of that. Retipping is building up soft solder to give some height back to it, and repronging is soldering on another prong. Because of the broken prong (god I've said prong too many times, sounds like gibberish) a stone came out so that had to be reset.
Project 29 was to resize up or down (again!!) the free form ring. Since I was dissatisfied with the shank entirely, I replaced it.
PROJECT 30
This setting is called a round basket. First we had to roll out our own wire. The general idea of a basket setting is being able to set a stone of any size based on its diameter. There's a calculation and being me, rather than follow directions and use a special mandrel for sizing the jump rings that form the basket, I decided to do the math and measure out the length of the wire that way. I ended up with rings 1 mm larger than they were supposed to be. Ah well. Anyway, took 2 long pieces of wire, crossed them, and soldered them. When you bend them up starting a little bit away from the intersection, you get the 4 posts for soldering to the rings. Starting with the smaller ring you solder on the 4 posts on the outer edge (drilled into the outside sides of the ring and inside sides of the posts so that they linked together, log cabin style, soldered at those joints). Soldered the larger ring ~1.5 mm higher up the post from the smaller ring. Evened all the posts out until the correct height. Cut out the bottom cross section that held the posts at the bottom. Then created what is called a rabbit ear bail. Also improvised a little on that one. The object is to take 2 long pieces of wire, fuse them at either end (no solder used, just lots of heat, yay torches! You can tell I wrote this post late at night). Fold it in half. I then fused the tips together. The manual didn't say how to keep the bail closed so it could be inserted in between the two rings and not keep popping open. Anyway, fusing worked, soldered it to the basket, opened the wire to get the bunny ears bit. Set the stone- and by the way, the stone doesn't just sit on the top ring, you still have to drill seats into the prongs so that the stone can rest just above the ring. Can't see it, but filed my prongs pointy again. I like it so much better that way.
PROJECT 31
This project I liked. We had to create another basket, oval this time. Used the mandrel this time as well. Side view so now you get the idea of what the basket looks like from the side. Also created the shank from scratch literally. Started with scrap metal, melted it down, rolled out a square bar, flattened it a little, filed in the shape I wanted (vaguely circle shaped). Although, when I first tried to solder my basket to the shank, the posts melted, caved in, and died. Sigh. I was able to salvage the rings but had to repost. Second attempt was much better anyway- they were on straighter and didn't look bitten up to all hell. For soldering the posts the oval method was to create U shapes out of 2 pieces of wire and have each arm be a post. That way the posts extended past the bottom of the smaller ring. Good thing for me because on recommendation from the woman who sits next to me, I drilled spots for the posts to rest in on either side of the shank, securing it. Made it really easy to solder the basket to the ring, just soldered those joints. File the bottom of the posts and it looks fine. Ignore the little pearly things, those are just the pins holding the ring up. As of this blog-posting this is my latest complete project, so now we're all on the same page. Huzzah!!
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