The "Rules" For Stacking Rings

[koolchicken]

Okay, so I want to make some stacking rings. They're actually going to be a big project for me over the next two years. I already have a few stones I want to make into stackers and have plans for several more. I know I do want to buy some pastel cabochons and have those bezeled. But the ones I have now are faceted, and I'm thinking about getting a couple more faceted stones. The thing is, I would prefer a faceted stone to be prong set. So here are my questions:

Can you have a prong set stacker?
Or are most stacking rings bezeled because they may rub and become damaged?
Do they really even rub, or does it just look like they're that close?
Could you set the prongs in such way as to prevent rubbing, or would that make them sit too far apart and look awkward?
Does the size of the stones matter?

For reference I wear a ring size 6-6.5 and my fingers and hands are really long. I find I can only really wear three bands at a time before it starts feeling awkward, but I might be able to do four if they're reasonably thin. I would prefer thin bands anyways, somewhere around 1-1.5 mm. The stones I'm looking to make into stackers are 5mm rounds.

Here's a photo of the stones I plan to use. I think I'm going to start with the two darker garnets (maybe one of the light pink spinels as well) and I want to try and find a couple of others. I figure I want to wait until I have at least three or four stones before I send them out. So I have time to figure this out.

 

[GregS]

I had a set of stacking rings made as a gift at one point. I had them bezel set, to prevent rubbing and I had the bezels soldered to the band so they could overlap one another. I have seen a poster here that has stackers that are prong set, I think it's a Spess and a Tsav if I'm not mistaken. You could prong set stackers, I think 6+ prongs would be ideal for protection. The only "rules" I followed where they must overlap and the girdle/edge must be protected, there are many ways to do that. Here are mine for reference...

 

[dk168]

I have seen a set at JKT, again, bezel-set stones, however, with spacer bands studded with diamonds in between, third row first from the left in her rings gallery page:

http://www.juliakaytaylor.com/rings.html

DK

 

[katharath]

I love stackers . I have owned quite a few varying styles...I have pics of two prong set stackers that stacked really nicely. It's a tsav and a mahenge - the mahenge was set higher so the the tsav could nestle up next to it. (I don't own the mahenge anymore but still have the tsav). The tsav is 5 mm, the mahenge 5.5 mm

 

[katharath]

Then I have my open style stackers. The gems are mahenges, yellow sapphires, blue/green/purple cc garnets, and demantoids. These were some of my first rings from Yvonne Raley (she did my others in my previous post too) and I still wear these all the time. They're so cute and fun, I think . I normally wear two together, not all four on one thumb, but these were easy to find pics.

 

[gemmyblond]

For some great stacking inspiration, you might take a look at the website www.lfrankjewelry.com Liseanne Frankfort is the designer and she's known for doing stacks of 7-9 thin rings using lots of different styles of stones and mountings and shapes..bezels mixed with prong-set mixed with cluster rings mixed with cabochons etc. The center bottom photo on her homepage (the photo that says "Stack") is a good example of it, as are some of the pics on the 2nd page of the Storyboard section of her site. (I couldn't get the photos to copy, sorry.)

I haven't purchased any of her pieces but have seen them at a trunk show and thought her mixed stacking rings were really cool and different. (I don't know her personally and am not a shill; her stuff just came to mind when I read your post.)

Hope it provides some good ideas of how to mix things up and have fun with it!

 

[katharath]

Meant to add in answer to your question - I didn't find the prong settings to be an issue as far as problems with the rings rubbing each other, etc. To help prevent that I had the one set higher than the other, as mentioned. It looked great and seemed to work well . I also kept the bands pretty thin too.

I love bezel stackers too (I've owned quite a few in my earlier collecting days!) but I think that with nicer faceted gems, it's natural to want to show the gem off as much as possible, so I really like the idea of prong set stackers.

 

[mochiko42]

I've seen some prong-set stacking rings on HoW Etsy's site: https://www.etsy.com/listing/40748206/baby-lotus-in-18k-yellow-gold-with?ref=shop_home_active_7

Though I think I personally would agree with GregS' suggestion to have 6 prongs instead of 4 for added protection

 

[koolchicken]

Thank you everyone for you're suggestions. I'd looked around a bit at photos on here but was still having trouble figuring out what I wanted and even if it was possible. I don't know what but for some reason when I think about prong set stones I think of four prongs, but six seems like the smart way to go. I think that I definitely want to do that. Just to be on the safe side. I think trying to figure out how the head or whatever it's called sits on the band should be best left to the designer. I'm not sure how I want it I just know I don't want it to be too, too high. I plan to ask DanielM to make them and I'm sure they know what they're doing. But I needed a general idea of what to ask for.

@katharath, I actually saw photos of your rings (well some of them, thanks for the extras!). I love the way you can wear the open ones around another. In fact you've given me an idea, I want to have an open halo made and be able to slip solitaires in and out of. Something like an enhancer, but I want it to match my ID Jewelry jackets. I'm going to have to figure out how something like that would work now.

@GregS, I love those rings! It's exactly what I want for the cabochon set I have in my mind. I was inspired by this photo I took while driving home one day.

I want pastel cabochons that mimic the colors of that sunset. And I want them bezel set the way yours are. I actually hadn't considered Opals for that set but seeing yours is making me reconsider. I think they'd play quite nicely with the other stones I had in my mind. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to share where you got your stones?

 

[mochiko42]

I want pastel cabochons that mimic the colors of that sunset. And I want them bezel set the way yours are. I actually hadn't considered Opals for that set but seeing yours is making me reconsider. I think they'd play quite nicely with the other stones I had in my mind. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to share where you got your stones?

How about Oregon sunstone, pink opal or ametrine. Those might be close to the colors in your sunset pic?

 

[pregcurious]

Powellato makes beautiful and varied versions of stacking rings. This is one of their sets with prongs.

 

[pregcurious]

I love these stackers from Mageve:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/finally-my-sugarloaves-rings-are-here.134082/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/finally-my-sugarloaves-rings-are-here.134082/[/URL]

 

[GregS]

Thank you everyone for you're suggestions. I'd looked around a bit at photos on here but was still having trouble figuring out what I wanted and even if it was possible. I don't know what but for some reason when I think about prong set stones I think of four prongs, but six seems like the smart way to go. I think that I definitely want to do that. Just to be on the safe side. I think trying to figure out how the head or whatever it's called sits on the band should be best left to the designer. I'm not sure how I want it I just know I don't want it to be too, too high. I plan to ask DanielM to make them and I'm sure they know what they're doing. But I needed a general idea of what to ask for.

@katharath, I actually saw photos of your rings (well some of them, thanks for the extras!). I love the way you can wear the open ones around another. In fact you've given me an idea, I want to have an open halo made and be able to slip solitaires in and out of. Something like an enhancer, but I want it to match my ID Jewelry jackets. I'm going to have to figure out how something like that would work now.

@GregS, I love those rings! It's exactly what I want for the cabochon set I have in my mind. I was inspired by this photo I took while driving home one day.

I want pastel cabochons that mimic the colors of that sunset. And I want them bezel set the way yours are. I actually hadn't considered Opals for that set but seeing yours is making me reconsider. I think they'd play quite nicely with the other stones I had in my mind. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to share where you got your stones?

Thank you! I got the Opals from a seller on Opal Auctions, here's a similar stone from his page, http://www.opalauctions.com/auctions/black-opal/item-333122,,, I think I paid $50 total for both of those stones. You have to copy and paste the web address to your explorer bar, for some reason the hyper link feature doesn't work with that web address. Drop the comma on the end if you want the link to work, there's a glitch or something, it won't let me delete it.

 

[pregcurious]

Quadrum in Boston also has great stackers:

 

[movie zombie]

I just went through my color stone stash last week and I decided it was time I would set some.
rather than individual stackers, I think I'm going to do something along these lines with my 3 tourmalines from the Himalaya Mine. what I think makes it work is what a poster above mentioned: bezel and overlap. I think if I decide to do individual stackers, i'll take that advice!

 

[Kelli]

I love this thread! I daydream of stackers constantly, but never see quite the right stones. Someday...

 

[koolchicken]

Thanks for the link to that site GregS. Watch me try and fail to resist that beautiful opal now.

I think those sugar loaves are beautiful. I've seen those before and I love them. But I think they're a bit too chunky for the look I'm going for. One day maybe, but I'm afraid they'd be one of those things I'd get, stare at constantly, but then never wear.

I really think I love the look of GregS's rings best. But I'm still committed to using faceted rounds for this project. I also like the look of katharath's rings even though their bezeled. I think going with a six prong set will probably be the best option for me. I don't want to have the stone set super high up though like in her rings.

Starting this thread got me thinking about rings in general and what I find comfortable. When thinking about what I wanted in an engagement ring one of the most important things to me was that I would be able to wear my wedding band right next to it. So that led my to Stuller's solitaire setting page. I don't know why I didn't think to look there sooner. I knew I wanted CS stackers so that's what I searched for when looking for inspiration. But looking at pics of settings that are designed to stack with another ring makes more sense. I could probably use a stock setting, I never even considered that!

 

[Kelli]

Since you mentioned Stuller… The setting I had put together (from the "findings" section of their site) for my Barry tourmaline is what I will probably end up making my stack with someday. Though that one is bezeled, I have another tourmaline with the same shank and a an eight prong crown head (which also comes in six prong) that I think would look great too. I'm posting it specifically because I think the shank is cool; it's a twisty one but also pretty thin so it would be easy to stack a few on there.

 

[Kelli]

Whoa those are huge, sorry. I also know that these settings in particular would be more difficult if you wanted them to sit flush, but you can get the shank with a different head. Just a thought

 

[ilovegemstones]

GregS I love your cool coloured stack! If I had stacking rings I would want them just like that.

 

[FrekeChild]

I just came across some older pictures I took. Once upon a time I wanted a bunch of stackers too, but I found that I never wore the ones I had. Now I seem to only wear an ering...if I'm lucky.

Anyway, I was just wearing them this way for the picture, since you can see how they would rub on each other. These are 7.9mm and 8.3mm plus the little one is something small like 3.5mm. But it reminded me of this thread!

 

[koolchicken]

Thank you FrekeChild for adding your rings. I like how it shows that bigger stones can rub. But really it's not that bad. I'm hoping to do stones no bigger than 5mm so I think I'll probably be okay.

Thank you to everyone for all of your help. I'll be sure to post pics once I get my stones set. I've got a lot of ideas now. My husband has very generously offered to pay for all of my setting costs. He just requests that I hold off until certain times, like right now he requests I wait until February, and that's fine by me. I'm hoping by March I'll have a number of new sparklyies to share here.

I love how so many people added different types of stacking rings to this thread. I feel like pretty much every type made it on here, all the regular stuff you'd expect to see as well as somethings I didn't expect. Hopefully it can help out other people in the future as stacking rings seem like something most people want to make at some point or another.