STONE SETTING PROCESS FOR JEWELRY AND JEWELRY FORMED BY THE SAME PROCESS

Abstract

A process of manufacturing a piece of jewelry by drilling holes through a piece of metal form a back surface thereon, forming a seat within each drilled hole, resting a peripheral surface of a crown side of a stone on each seat, forming partially drilled holes into a front surface of the piece of metal and setting a cutlet side of a stone into the partially drilled holes such that the crowns of the stones are viewable at different heights from the front surface of the piece of jewelry, and a piece of jewelry formed by the same process.

Claims

1. A process for making a piece of jewelry, comprising: drilling at least one hole through a piece of metal from a back surface thereof; forming a seat within each hole to receive an outer periphery of a crown of a stone thereon; setting a stone within each hole such that the crown of each stone rests on the corresponding seat and is viewable through the corresponding hole from a front surface of the piece of metal; securing each stone within the corresponding hole; forming at least one partially drilled hole through the front surface of the piece of metal; setting a cutlet of a stone into each partially drilled hole such that a crown of each stone is facing upward with respect to the front surface of the piece of metal; and securing each stone in the at least one partially drilled hole.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps of drilling at least one hole through a piece of metal from a back surface thereof and forming a seat within each hole is performed by a burnish setting process.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps of drilling at least one hole through a piece of metal from a back surface thereof and forming a seat within each hole is performed by a bead setting process.

4. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps of drilling at least one hole through a piece of metal from a back surface thereof and forming a seat within each hole is performed by a hammer setting process.

5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps of drilling at least one hole through a piece of metal from a back surface thereof and forming a seat within each hole is performed by the steps of drilling the least one hole with a drill bit and then forming the seat within the corresponding hole using a bur tool.

6. The process according to claim 1, wherein the steps of forming at least one partial drilled hole through the front surface of the piece of metal and setting a cutlet of a stone into each partial drilled hole is performed by a pave setting process.

7. A piece of jewelry, comprising: a piece of metal including: at least one stone set therein by a process of drilling at least one hole through the piece of metal from a back surface thereof, forming a seat within each hole to receive an outer periphery of a crown of the stone thereon, and setting the stone within each hole such that the crown of each stone rests on the corresponding seat and is viewable through the corresponding hole from a front surface of the piece of metal, and at least one stone set within a front surface of the piece of metal by a process of forming at least one partially drilled hole through the front surface of the piece of metal, setting a cutlet side of the stone into each partially drilled hole such that a crown side of each stone is facing upward with respect to the front surface of the piece of metal and securing each stone in the at least one partially drilled hole.

8. The piece of jewelry according to claim 7, wherein the crown side of the at least one stone resting on a corresponding seat within the piece of metal is set below the front surface of the piece of metal.

9. The piece of jewelry according to claim 7, wherein the crown side of the at least one stone resting on a corresponding seat within the piece of metal is set at the same level as the front surface of the piece of metal.

10. The piece of jewelry according to claim 7, wherein the crown side of the at least one stone set within the front surface of the piece of metal is set at the same level as the front surface of the piece of metal.

11. The piece of jewelry according to claim 7, wherein the crown side of the at least one stone set within the front surface of the piece of metal is set higher than the front surface of the piece of metal.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] These and/or other features and utilities of the present inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

[0024] FIG. 1A illustrates a conventional process for making jewelry.

[0025] FIG. 1B illustrates another view of the conventional process for making jewelry illustrated in FIG. 1A.

[0026] FIG. 2A illustrates another conventional process for making jewelry.

[0027] FIG. 2B illustrates another view of the conventional process for making jewelry illustrated in FIG. 2A.

[0028] FIG. 2C illustrates another view of the conventional process for making jewelry illustrated in FIG. 2A.

[0029] FIG. 3 illustrates a process of making jewelry according to an example embodiment of the present inventive concept.

[0030] FIG. 4 illustrates an elevated side view of a piece of jewelry 100 made by the processes described above with reference to FIG. 3.

[0031] FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of a piece of jewelry 100 made by the processes described above with reference to FIG. 3.

[0032] The drawings illustrate a few example embodiments of the present inventive concept and are not to be considered limiting in its scope, as the overall inventive concept may admit to other equally effective embodiments. The elements and features shown in the drawings are to scale and attempt to clearly illustrate the principles of exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept. In the drawings, reference numerals designate like or corresponding, but not necessarily identical, elements throughout the several views.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0033] Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept while referring to the figures. Also, while describing the present general inventive concept, detailed descriptions about related well-known functions or configurations that may diminish the clarity of the points of the present general inventive concept are omitted.

[0034] It will be understood that although the terms first and second may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element may be termed a first element without departing from the teachings of this disclosure.

[0035] Expressions such as at least one of, when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.

[0036] All terms including descriptive or technical terms which are used herein should be construed as having meanings that are obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. However, the terms may have different meanings according to the intention of the inventors, case precedents, or the appearance of new technologies. Also, some terms may be arbitrarily selected by the inventors, and in this case, the meaning of the selected terms will be described in detail in the detailed description herein. Thus, the terms used herein have to be defined based on the generally defined meaning of the terms together with the description throughout this specification.

[0037] Hereinafter, one or more exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

[0038] Example embodiments of the present general inventive concept are directed to a process of setting stones in a piece of jewelry by setting stones upside down on one surface of a piece of jewelry and then setting stones right side up on an opposite surface of the jewelry. Example embodiments of the present inventive concept will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 3-5.

[0039] A process for setting stones 104 in a piece of jewelry 100 according to an example embodiment of the present inventive concept is described with reference to FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 3, holes 106 can be formed through a piece metal 102, such as a flat precious piece of gold or silver. These holes 106 can be formed by drilling through the piece of metal 102. However, these holes 106 can be formed by other processes, such as, for example, by using a laser. Then a seat 106a can be formed in each of the holes 106 by using a setting bur tool (or a larger drill bit which drills partially through a drilled hole). The seat 106a will act as a resting surface for each of the corresponding one of the stones 104 placed in a corresponding hole 106. These seats 106a can be formed through a rear surface R of the piece of metal 102. Once the holes 106 and corresponding seats 106a are formed from the rear surface R of the piece of metal 2 a plurality of stones 104 can be turned upside down such that the crown 104a of the stone 104 is facing down and the cutlet 104b of the stone is facing up. Then the stones 104 can be placed in a corresponding hole 106 such that the crown 104a of each stone 104 is seated on a corresponding seat 106a of a hole 106. The stones 104 can then be secured within the hole 106 by various different known processes. This process of setting the stones 104 in a piece of metal 102 is referred to as a burnishing process. However, alternative processes for setting the stones 104 into the piece of jewelry 102 from the back surface can include, for example pave setting, bead set, burnish, hammer set, etc. With this configuration the crown 104a of the stone 104 can be viewed through the hole 106 from a front surface F of the piece of metal 102.

[0040] Once the stones 104 are set in the corresponding holes 106 the piece of metal 102 can be turned over. A plurality of holes 108 can then be partial drilled through the piece of metal 102 from the front surface F to a depth such that stones 104 can be seated therein, resulting in the crown 104a of the stones 104 to be flush with the front surface F of the piece of metal 102. These partial drilled holes 108 can be formed adjacent to the holes 106 extending through the front surface F where the crowns 104a of the stones 104 set by the burning process are exposed. After the partially drilled holes 108 are completed the stones 104 can be placed therein by placing the cutlet 104b of the stones 104 into the partially drilled holes 108. It is to be noted that the partially drilled holes 108 should be formed to receive the cutlet 104b of the stones 104 therein such that the cutlet 104b of the stones 104 is securely seated within the partially drilled holes 108 and the crown 104a of the stones 104 rests at the desired height with respect to the front surface F of the piece of metal 102.

[0041] It is to be noted that the holes 106 and corresponding seats 106a can be formed by processes other than the burnishing process which will result in a through hole with a seat on which outer surfaces of a crown 104a of a stone 104 can rest. It is also to be noted that the partially drilled holes 108 can be formed by processes other than the paving process which will result in a cutlet 104b of a stone 104 being seated therein such that the crown 104a of a stone 104 will be exposed at the front surface F of a piece of metal 102.

[0042] FIG. 4 illustrates an elevated side view of a completed piece of jewelry 100 made by the processes described above with reference to FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the stones 104 set on the front surface of a piece of metal 2 can be configured such that the crown sides 104a are raised above the front surface F of the piece of metal 102. However, the stones 104 set on the front surface of a piece of metal 2 can be configured such that the crown sides 104a are at the same level as the front surface F of the piece of metal 102. Further, the stones 104 set within the piece of metal 102 having their crowns 104a resting on a seat 106a with a corresponding hole 106 can be configured such that the crown sides 104a are below the front surface F of the piece of metal 102. However, the stones 104 set within the piece of metal 102 having their crowns 104a resting on a seat 106a with a corresponding hole 106 can be configured such that the crown sides 104a are at the same level as the front surface F of the piece of metal 102.

[0043] FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of a completed piece of jewelry 100 made by the processes described above with reference to FIG. 3.

[0044] Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.