Pear Shaped Setting

This project is from Stage 7 of the Silver program at Jewellery Training Solutions, a stage dedicated to learning settings for various shaped stones. This project rounds out the shaped stones: we’ve done marquis, square, round, emerald and now pear. It’s been really interesting to learn this process, and I’ve learned so many tips and tricks along the way. I can definitely see using many of these settings as pendants in the future.

What were the challenges?

This project went very smoothly, until it didn’t. It took several tries to get it right, as each in this level have. The first time, it went very well, except the setting was slightly too small for the stone and I couldn’t make it work. I redid it, but then the ring at the top of the pendant broke as I was setting the stone. Luckily I was able to fix it. There was a lot of fine soldering and heat control issues with this project, so I was happy I was able to get that done without more catastrophes.

Where could I improve?

I’m very happy with how this turned out (the third time around). I’d like to have done better at setting the v-prong at the top of the stone, but at this point the stone is secure and I didn’t want to take the risk of damaging anything again.

What did I learn?

There were so many great tips with this project. I learned to make a hinge without using tubing (drilling straight through a thicker piece of metal). I also learned to make the ball catch out of one piece of metal - filing to make the ball. Lots of other little tricks, as well. This was a great project. One more to go in this level!