Five Popular Pave Diamond Settings

When shopping for a unique diamond setting, you can easily get overwhelmed by the hundreds of styles available, and the terminology used to describe the settings. Help is here! These five diamonds settings are used primarily for the smaller stones, the melee diamonds, which decorate the engagement ring band. Although the small stones used in these settings are not as pricey as the bigger rock that anchors the ring, the settings themselves can be complicated and require hours of labor, which of course can make the setting more expensive as well.

This setting consists of many small gemstones set closely together, held in place by nearly invisible metal beads, creating the effect of a continuous surface of diamonds.

Combining the security of a bezel setting with the sparkle of pave-set stones, this diamond setting surrounds the center stone with a collar of small stones, creating the illusion of a larger diamond.

While not often used for a center diamond, the channel setting is popular on eternity bands and for the smaller diamonds on the band of an engagement ring. In this diamond setting, a row of small gems are placed into a metal channel that holds them in place, creating the illusion of an uninterrupted line of diamonds.

As its name implies, in this diamond setting the stone sits within the surrounding metal, although it does not have the collar that typifies the bezel setting. When used on the band of the ring, it creates a sleek, contemporary look that still sparkles and dazzles.

A creative and different diamond setting, this style sets small diamonds directly into the metal of the band, creating sparks of light like bubbles in a glass of champagne.