Stone Set Cross

This is the fifth project from Stage 8 of the Apprentice program at Jewellery Training Solutions, a stage dedicated to learning advanced cutting skills and advanced setting construction. This was one of the projects that I looked at several years ago, the first time I ran into the JTS website, and said to myself, “I’ll never be able to do that.” Well, never say never!

What were the challenges?

This project was challenging from start to finish! The first challenge was to make an ingot that was perfectly square, not with rounded corners as it usually comes out of the rolling mill. The marking and precision cutting in this one was crazy. It felt like there were a million and one steps to this one! Probably one of the hardest things was to get the holes drilled straight - it’s so easy to be slightly off.

Where could I improve?

While I’m happy with how this came out, I could improve each and every part of this. The ajour work needs practice, although it turned out better than last time I did it. Improvement is a good thing. I had trouble drilling the holes straight, but I was able to fix most of them with the subsequent cuts. There are some unfortunate stray saw marks where the saw slipped as I was making the cuts on each side. Also, the bright cuts around the stones could be much more even. In general, everything could be more precise.

What did I learn?

I learned a new way of stone setting with this project, which is always fun! This project was great practice doing the ajour work and Peter taught how to make an ingot perfectly square, with sharp corners. I also learned about cutting holes in the side (they are angled up towards the stones) to allow extra light to hit the stone, and that one of the purposes of ajour work is to ease the cleaning of the stones and to allow more light to hit the stone. This pendant really sparkles! Unfortunately it called for 2.5mm stones, and only had 2mm, so I made it work. It would have been real bling with the larger stones, for sure!