Silver ring with oval cabochon morganite, pale pink

How it is made

The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.

01

Cabochon cut

No facets: the stone is roughed out and polished to a continuous dome. It is not the easiest cut, it is the cut that hides least — on a smooth surface every undulation reads with the naked eye, while among facets it is lost. And the light does not come back as sparkle: it goes in, passes through the thickness and comes back up carrying the color with it, so what you look at is the color and not the fire.

02

Morganite

Morganite is beryl, the same mineral species as emerald and aquamarine: what changes is the impurity shut in the lattice, and here it is manganese, which tints the crystal a pink running from peach to lilac. The name dates from the twentieth century and comes from a gem collector, J. P. Morgan. The pink is almost always pale, and the color is seen through the thickness the light passes through: that is why morganite is cut into large stones, or roughed out as a cabochon, while on a thin stone the pink disappears. Most of what is on the market has been heated, a stable treatment that removes the orange component and leaves the pink clean. In hardness it sits between seven and a half and eight and stands up to wear, but like all beryls it can hold veils and fractures inside, and on those a sharp knock does more damage than the hardness would suggest.

03

Plate setting on an open back

The setting is not a cup: it is a sheet of silver bent around the outline of the stone and closed on itself, and underneath there is no back — the seat goes right through, and the gem can be seen from behind as well. The rim is fitted cold, a section at a time, pushed onto the dome with a burnisher until there is no play left: the sheet has to be tall enough to hold and low enough not to climb onto the color. With no back beneath it, the stone settles only on its outline, and a section left loose is not discovered in the studio: it is discovered when the ring is worn.

04

Wrapped wire and granules

Around the setting runs a round silver wire, soldered to the rim and bent so as to follow it at a constant distance. It is not there to hold the stone: it is there to give the setting a second outline, and for that reason the eye judges it as it judges a drawn line — one deviation is enough and the gap shows. The two ends are not cut off square: they are heated until the tip draws back on itself and closes into a bead, the granule, which is both the end of the wire and its finishing. It is a matter of a few seconds in which the flame decides: an instant longer and the granule grows at the expense of the wire, or runs onto the setting.