Creating an engagement ring

It's such a busy time of year!

I'm currently very busy working on Christmas gifts for my family, as you'll be able to see once the season is finally over on my knitting blog.

I also need to finish this lovely little number:

 

The prongs on this need to be lovelied up (which is much easier once they're attached to something I can actually hold on to!), and then the stones need to be set. The recipient has chosen an emerald, oval center stone, with two pear shaped clear stones on the sides. She's a chemist, so she didn't mind using synthetic stones to help cut back on some of the costs.

The ring needs to be fully polished before setting the stones. In preperation for this, I've taken the shank of the ring to a fine emery to help cut back on work. There's no point taking it to a full polish at this point, because finish will be ruined once I solder the settings to the shank. The settings themselves haven't had too much attention, mostly because they're too small to hold onto.

Once the settings are soldered on, I'll be taking the entire ring to a fine emery, and tossing it in my tumber to toughen up the prongs. Sterling silver is like butter right after soldering, so this will help ensure that the prongs won't BUDGE once the stones are set. After the tumbler, I'll take some black rouge to it to make sure it's a ring she's going to be proud of.

Once I'm in the process of setting the stones, I'll post an updated picture. I've never set pear shaped stones before, so I'll admit I'm nervous. I know the theory, I've just never done it in practice. Worst case scenario, if I make a huge mistake I can always take the prongs off and fashion new ones. It's easy once you've had to practice it a few times!