Can anyone give me examples of different types of settings? I'm getting confused as to what's what. Channel, Pave, Melee, uh..............prong set melee's?
Melee= small diamonds. When diamonds are below a certain size (I believe, but could be totally wrong that below 1/10 carat) they are called melee. Melee can be found in sizes that are usually called points, i.e. 2 pointers are stones that are .02 carats in size, 3 pointers are .03 etc.
Prong set= when small 'arms' come up from the metal to embrace the stones.
Shared prong= when stones set in a row share an arm that holds them in...a way to see more of the stone especially in a smaller melee size.
Channel set= a row of diamonds in between two metal bands- sort of a 'river' of diamonds and the metal would be the 'riverbanks'- no prongs
Pave= stones that are kind of 'pushed' into the metal. Picture a road with rocks on it, thena big steamroller comes along and paves them into the road. (
not that any of us wants a steamroller to run over our diamonds)
OK so is there such a thing as a combination Pave/channel set? I have an antique ring and the stones appear to be pave from the top (ie. pushed into the stone)but there are holes cut under each individual stone. I assume they're melees cause they are quite small. I'm learning!
Man I wish I could but I don't have a camera. I'll see what I can do, may take a day or two. It's one of my favorite rings and I would like to find out more about it.
Reena, it looks alot like your grandmother's ring, same style except the platinum is set with diamonds and the center has a sapphire flanked by 2 prong set diamonds on either side.
again i'm no expert but it sounds like you could be describing bead set diamonds. below is a useful diagram showing what a bead setting looks like. (note what appear to be openings beneath the stones in the bottom picture.)