Pave Diamond Ring – do’s and don’ts

A pave diamond ring is basically a very wide band, with a multitude of very small diamonds spread over the surface. When you consider such a piece of jewelery, you should be aware of a few things that will make your decision a better and more informed one.

Diamonds in a white gold setting should be color J or avove. Any color below that will show some yellow in the diamonds. In a yellow gold setting, you can get away with a color all the way down to M-N, since the yellow gold will mask the yellow tint in the stones and therefore the stones in the pave diamond ring will still look white.

Be sure to only buy from a reputable jeweler online or offline. This is very imortant, since the workmanship of a piece like that will have to come with a guarantee. This is vital, since there is a chance of a stone / stones falling out. This is not nesecarily the fault of the jeweler, but simply a drawback of the way the stones are set. Since you want the diamonds set closely together, prongs will not work, since they take up too much space. Instead, the stones are pushed into the gold and than some of the metal is pushed over the side to keep the diamonds in place, making the pave diamond ring a little harder to care for than some other jewelry. For the same reason, cleaning will also have to be done with the utmost care.

Make sure the ring fits, right from the start. Because of the way the stones are set (as described above), you want to make sure, that the ring does not have to be sized. While making the ring smaller / bigger, the jeweler would have to move the entire ring ever so slightly, which can cause the stones to loosen.
These tips will make your life a happier one in the long run and insure that you enjoy your Pave Diamond Ring.

Pave Diamond Ring – or a solitaire

A pave diamond ring has the advantage of looking like a collection of very big stones, yet it is a culmination of very small stones, set tightly together. What does that really mean? Well, diamonds go up in price as the carat weight increases. This happens exponentially and as a result, the bigger the stone, the pricier the ring. In a pave setting, all stones are small, which in turn gives you a lot of value for your money.

Let me give you an example: a one carat solitaire, eye-clean (which means no inclusions are visible to the naked eye) and white (to the untrained eye that would be color M or above) will cost you in the neighborhood of USD 6,000.- (give or take about 2k, to take cut into account). By the same token, a pave diamond ring of the same criteria (smaller stones do not have to have the clarity of larger ones to be considered eye clean, since it is very difficult to see any inclusions in stones that size), will probably cost you somewhere around USD 1,500.-. The performance of the pave ring however, will be by superior to a solitaire, since you have a lot of individually cut diamonds (each with 57 or 58 facets), rather than just one bigger diamond with the same amount of facets.

There are more advantages. For instance, a pave set ring is less likely to get caught on things, since all the diamonds are set into the gold and nothing sticks out that could catch. The disadvantage is, that you have to be careful, since there is a chance of one or more of the smaller stones to just fall out because of the way they are set. However, replacing a stone of say 2 or 3 points is not a big deal financially, replacing a one carat solitaire would be a major loss.

If you want the big look, without the big price-tag, the choice is clear. By the way, i am not suggesting to replace solitaires with pave set, you can not replace a solitaire engagement ring with anything, i am simply saying, that if you want something with a lot of bling, the way to go is with a pave diamond ring .