Prong Setting Comprehensive

Get ready to step up your jewelry making game with a prong setting comprehensive! Prongs are thin, linear strips of metal that extend upward from a band or base, creating a cone-like cradle to hold a center stone. Once the gemstone is properly seated inside the cradle, the ends of the prongs are bent over toward the stone to hold or bind it securely in place, creating a tight fit that shows off the stones natural sparkle.

In this comprehensive weekly class, students will make prongs from scratch using wire, sheet metal, and tubing. Round, oval, emerald, trillion, as well as numerous other shapes will be covered in both traditional geometric styles and custom organic applications!

Pre-fab setting can be extremely useful when fabrication a production line or when time at the bench is short - learning to effectively use pre-fabricated prong settings can save jeweler many hours, allowing them to put more emphasis on design and making the cost of the fabrication process more economical! In addition to fabrication prongs from scratch, this class will teach students how to work with commercial prong settings, showing how to pre-notch them using stone setting burs, how to seat stones properly, and how to customize them for a more handcrafted look.

Tips on finishing prongs and working with odd-shaped stones will be covered as well. We will be using sterling prong settings throughout this course but anyone can use gold settings if they wish to bring in gold.