GS: A French Inspired Engagement Ring

When you have a really REALLY high quality diamond, all you want to do is set it in a way to showcase it... not take away from it. So normally, you would set it high in the least amount of metal possible. But when it's going to a highly active client, you want to make sure it is set as safely as possible.

Normally, when I think of safe, I think of bezel. But we didn't want to bezel set this diamond, we wanted to let in the most light possible. The client also wanted something a bit more classic looking. So I came up with a heavy prong idea, which was inspired by antique furniture.

When dealing with larger stones it's common to use a 'claw' prong (which looks like 2 claws holding the stone in place for each prong.) I wanted to used a feature I adore from classic furniture, the ball and claw foot.



I'm not sure if the ball and claw is technically French by design, but I have seen many French antiques that use that element. So I built triple claw prongs, each out of 3 wires soldered together. Now, I did have the center wire much larger (round/bulbous) than the side 2 wires of each claw prong when I fabricated the setting, but my classically trained stone setter thought differently and shaped them as he saw fit. While it wasn't my original design, sometimes you can't argue with experience. So, I will consider the finishing on this piece a collaboration... and it looks amazing!

The final ring is a 1.5ct VVS1 E round brilliant diamond with a platinum setting...