What Are the Different Types of Jewelry Settings

The jewelry setting is simply the metal base in which a gemstone (such as diamond, opal, moonstone, larimar, etc.) sits in. In the early ages of jewelry design, much smaller gemstones were used in crafting the jewelry as compared to the gemstones of today’s times which are considerably large. This is why, during those times, the metal band was able to hold those small gemstones, and jewelry settings were not needed. Today, the stones are much bigger, and also, are crafted in various different shapes, which is why, you need different jewelry settings to support these gemstones. Lastly, you need to understand that many people in the gemstone jewelry industry use the terms “jewelry setting” and “jewelry mounting” interchangeably. Some jewelers claim that the term “jewelry mounting” refers just to the part of the jewelry that holds the stone – such as the prong head or the bezel part because the word “mounting” originates from the action of mounting the stone onto the metal. However, to keep things simple for the scope of this blog, we will use both terms interchangeably.