September/October 2002 • Vision Underground • The Cutting Edge • Dissecting the Atom • Designs: Carpets of Sparkle • News & Updates

Carpets of Sparkle
Pavé's colorful look and affordable price are making it the latest must-have.
By Marlene A. Prost

Black diamond bead necklace with a ruby and emerald pavé pendant from Leon Popov's Strawberry collection.

For most people in the trade, the term "pavé" conjures up images of a sheet of glittering, tightly-set diamonds. But colored gemstones are gaining ground in the pavé world, making a splash on the European jewelry scene and poising to enter the U.S. market.

Pavé derives from a variation of strip setting, an ancient method of fastening stones in metal. As its French name suggests, pavé resembles a cobblestone road; it is also described as a honeycomb of tiny gems, set so close to each other that they create the effect of a single broad sweep of color.

Pavé pendants and bangles from the Python collection by Barry Kronen Designs.

Pavé has become popular because it appeals to both the eye and pocketbook: It provides the sweeping brilliance of a carpet of gemstones at far less cost than large, individual stones. However, pavé in general is marketed more as a fashion accessory than a lifetime keepsake like a solitaire stone, says Andrea Milano of Piero Milano Gioielli in Italy.

"It's not something people match with value," says Milano. "We sell [pavé] jewelry to people who have a wedding band, solitaire, studs, and a tennis bracelet and are looking for something different, maybe not something that will last a lifetime, but will last a season. Something that is matching with their shoes or bags, something attracting them this moment. Color is a part of this."

Colored stones are added to pavé to coordinate with color in fashion and to create colorful patterns. For example, the python collection by Barry Kronen Designs of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, simulates the pattern on a snake's back. The pavé integrates pink, yellow, and blue sapphires and cognac and champagne diamonds. The colored diamonds are more costly than sapphire, but less expensive than white diamonds.

Kronen has been using colored stone pavé, especially sapphires and semi-precious stones, for about six years. "Pavé is a way to accomplish the look I'm trying to achieve. I use it in different ways to make patterns. . . . Sometimes we incorporate other stones, sometimes we pavé diamond around center stones." His pavé designs range in price, wholesale, from several hundred to $15,000 for a pavé openwork diamond and colored gem cuff.

Technical Difficulties
S etting colored stones presents challenges to pavé designers that diamonds generally do not. First, colored gems are more difficult to match, whether setting an entire piece with the same color or varying shades for a rainbow design. Second, colored gemstones are more fragile than diamonds, and more likely to chip or break during the casting process, which can be costly.

The main difficulty in working with colored gemstone pavé is matching color, says Leon Popov of Leon Popov Joaillerie in Switzerland. "With diamonds, it's much easier. You order a specific color and cut. It's very simple. [But] to find 250 rubies in exactly the same color and cut, we need to work a little bit."

For example, Popov's "Strawberry" collection in ruby pavé requires a total of up to 1,000 matching rubies for the three-piece set. "It's quite a problem from the point of view of choosing the stones. From the point of view of setting, it's almost the same."

"With every colored stone, matching is difficult to do. . . . In some designs, like rainbow, blending different shades, picking the right hues to blend is tricky," agrees Eddie Le Vian of Le Vian jewelry design in New York. His company uses "practically every gem there is," including Sri Lankan and Madagascan sapphires in shades of pink, yellow, and violet, as well as ruby, emerald, tanzanite, tsavorite, peridot, garnet, and citrine.

Colored stones may be less expensive than diamonds, "but at the same time, you have to select a lot," says Milano, who always combines diamonds with colored stone pavé. Piero Milano uses mostly sapphires, rubies, and inexpensive stones like citrine, amethyst, and blue topaz in 1½ to 2½ mm. "It's not more expensive [than diamond], but you have to work on the selection."

Colored stone and diamond pavé rings from Piero Milano's Acquarello collection. Photo courtesty Goldstein Communications.

It is definitely easier to use diamonds in pavé because the stones are supplied in precise size and cut from select factories in China, Milano says. "Since we work in quality stones, we need very nice stones, especially in the cut. It is not easy to find good cut in colored stones. Sometimes we don't find the exact stones. We make a lot of rejections. To make a nice pavé, is when you don't see the gold — just a carpet of stones. You need a very good cut."

If the stones are being set by hand, rather than cast as they would be in volume manufacturing, a good bench jeweler can compensate for irregular cut, says Scott Hepner, service foreman at Johnson's Family Diamond Cellar in Dublin, Ohio. "The pavilion [on colored stones] tends to be deeper. Typically, the seat varies according to the stone; some have deep pavilions, some shallow."

Sapphire and diamond pavé ring from Victor Mayer and Fabergé.

While diamonds are precisely cut by the supplier, "matched stones in color are not always available in the cut we prefer," he adds.

If colored stones are appearing more in the commercial market, it is because of more extensive use of stone-in-place casting. In this technique, the stones are set in wax, which in turn is encased in an investment, or heat-resistant mold. The investment is heated slowly to burn away the wax, and then the cavity that's left is filled with metal.

Casting is less costly than setting tiny individual stones in metal, and there is less chance of chipping while pressing the stone. Often used by larger manufacturers of commercial pavé, stone-in-place casting can only be applied to heat-tolerant stones. Sapphires and rubies are most often used in pavé because they are less likely to crack when heated than other gemstones.

"Colored stones are more fragile than diamonds. They have higher breakage. Your breakage determines your costs," says Jerry Weiss, director of American sales for Aaron Shum USA Corp., which distributes pavé jewelry for Gemtique Swiss Ltd. "Pavé is a very slow and painstaking process with semiprecious stones. In the higher-end prestige lines, you see more colored pavé because it requires a higher price point."

High-end designers rely on traditional, labor-intensive techniques of pavé setting. "We specialize in doing difficult things. We stay away from lost wax casting," says Le Vian. "We do cut the stones small and set them. Sometimes they break, but that's part of the business."

Breakage can be expected, agrees Hepner. "If you're careful, you can keep it to a minimum. If you're using matched stones, it's good to have extra in place."

There are several types of pavé setting. In bead setting, the model is made with tiny metal prongs, or the setter drills holes in the bed and pushes gold over the edges of the stones. Although pavé is a hidden setting, in both cases, some metal does still show, says Le Vian. "You minimize, but you don't eliminate the gold showing. Nobody in the world can do pavé without gold showing."

The Rose Pin, invisibly hand-set with 48 carats of ruby and diamonds on the stem, from Le Vian. Photo courtesty Rea Lubar Inc.

Meanwhile, the Le Vian family has specialized in invisible settings, a variation of pavé in which no metal at all is visible between the stones, which are set from underneath. Invisible setting was developed in France in the 18th century and became a lost art until the 1900s. In an invisible setting, a square-cut stone, like a princess or baguette, is cut with grooves that are fitted into a metal grid underneath. Each stone is snapped into its "rail."

Going a step further, Le Vian has pioneered invisible setting in curved lines. "The way people do invisible setting, they cut grooves under the stones and make rails like railroad tracks, straight. It is easy. But with curving, the groove has to fit the track in a curving pattern. It is monumentally difficult. . . . Every stone has to be recut," says Le Vian, who uses curved invisible settings in his ruby-studded Rose and Lobster designs.

While diamonds continue to be the mainstay of pavé jewelry, colored stones continue to add interest and variety.

"We always combine colored stones with diamonds for sure," says Milano. "If we see a collection, it is mainly diamonds. Diamonds are most requested. But we follow fashion and we use colored stones. It's already popular."