With the price of gold so high, what are you doing for your setting projects?

[Dr_Diesel]

I would love to see jewellers use more unusual metals like titanium (Austy Lee) or ceramic (Wallace Chan). But most jewellers here don’t like titanium because it has no scrap value and people in Asia usually want precious metals. I recently set a spinel in a plain rose golf ring to fit between two other rings that I have had for some time. The flowers spin! It is my fidget ring.

Gorgeous AND fun!!!! I love it

True statement about precious metas in Asia, especially gold! Historically, that's one of the reasons why gold jewelry was so commonly used in dowries: You get to wear your backup/emergency bank account!

...the other downside with titanium is that it cannot be cast. It has to be cut from a solid block by a C&C machine. This greatly limits the design possibilities and makes prong settings impossible, at least as fas as Im aware. I think that, where stones are involved, titanium may limit designers to tension settings and nothing more.

 

[Crimson]

Gorgeous AND fun!!!! I love it

True statement about precious metas in Asia, especially gold! Historically, that's one of the reasons why gold jewelry was so commonly used in dowries: You get to wear your backup/emergency bank account!

...the other downside with titanium is that it cannot be cast. It has to be cut from a solid block by a C&C machine. This greatly limits the design possibilities and makes prong settings impossible, at least as fas as Im aware. I think that, where stones are involved, titanium may limit designers to tension settings and nothing more.

Thank you for explaining, @Dr_Diesel !
Yes, I ageee with you about ‘wearable assets’. Layering of gold jewellery is done very seriously here. As a child, I thought our housekeeper was very wealthy because she wore all her gold jewelry whenever she came to do the cleaning and ironing.
I am so crazy about titanium, I had to resist buying these rings by Ilia X Scavia.
The first one is especially attractive because the flower opens when the ring is worn.




I also found this from Largentolab. Smart way to incorporate prongs — make the band with titanium and the prongs with silver or gold.

 

[Dr_Diesel]

Thank you for explaining, @Dr_Diesel !
Yes, I ageee with you about ‘wearable assets’. Layering of gold jewellery is done very seriously here. As a child, I thought our housekeeper was very wealthy because she wore all her gold jewelry whenever she came to do the cleaning and ironing.
I am so crazy about titanium, I had to resist buying these rings by Ilia X Scavia.
The first one is especially attractive because the flower opens when the ring is worn.




I also found this from Largentolab. Smart way to incorporate prongs — make the band with titanium and the prongs with silver or gold.

Ooooh! Thank you for sharing this! This is really eye-opening (in every sense of the phrase)!

 

[CBianco]

@CBianco

I typically only wear white metal. My recent settings have been in platinum, but thats my go to anyway for rings with more expensive center stones. I have a less expensive purple garnet that I might want to set next year and it's looking like plat may also be the way to go...

 

[jaqjaqjaq]

I’ve hopped on the platinum train! I have a few colored stones I want to set and one desperately needs to be in yellow gold but that is likely going to have to wait. I too tried to wait out the hike and that was a mistake!