Two categories of stone cover most of what a jewellery designer draws after the centrepiece: cabochons and melée. One is the oldest cut in the trade; the other is the smallest. Both have drawing rules of their own, and knowing them keeps a design board credible long before it reaches the bench.
Cabochons: the oldest cutting style
A cabochon is a facet-less cut: a polished dome with a defined outline and no faceting. It is the most traditional and still the most common way to cut coloured gems, and many softer gem types — especially translucent and opaque varieties — are cut only as cabochons. Jade, agate and amber are classic cabochon materials; patterned or unusually featured stones also suit the cut because the dome displays them without faceted interference.
Sapphire and ruby can be cut en cabochon too, but with a caveat worth knowing at the design stage: they are always more valuable faceted, so typically only the lower-clarity grades are selected for cabochon cutting. A design built around a fine sapphire cab is drawing something the market rarely supplies.
Outlines
Round and oval are the traditional outlines. Teardrop and boat (marquise) shapes are popular fancy options, and freeform cabochons exist for one-off designs. Drawing a cabochon is the easiest gem to draw: it needs only the outline of its shape — no facet lines at all.
Profiles: height and belly
The dome can be high, medium or low. Most cabochons have a flat back; some carry a small "belly" underneath, and a large belly matters twice over: it is harder to set, and it retains extra weight that inflates the price of the stone. A double cab (domed on both sides), buff-top, bullet and tongue profiles appear in reference charts as the rarer variants, and occasionally a cabochon even comes with a pointed pavilion underneath.
Melée: the small-stone vocabulary
Melée are small stones, usually 3 mm or less and typically round. Less common shapes run about 4×2 mm or 5×3 mm and under. The term most often refers to small brilliant-cut or single-cut diamonds used as accents around a larger gem, though it applies to coloured stones too. Thread-work and pavé — rows of very small gems covering the metal surface — are the classic melée applications.
Drawing melée without going dark
The smaller the stone, the fewer facets you draw. Adding a full facet pattern to a 2 mm stone in a drawing renders it dark and included-looking instead of sparkling. The working rules from the drawing table:
- A few stones of 3–4 mm — draw the full brilliant cut.
- Many stones of 3–4 mm — simplify the facet pattern.
- A few stones of 1–3 mm — single cut.
- Many stones of 1–3 mm — single cut, further simplified.
Consistency is the rule that binds these choices: pick one style to suit the design and never mix styles within a layout. Enlarged views beside actual-size views are the standard way to show both the detail and the real scale on one board.
Working cabs and melée into a design
Cabochon profiles change setting choices — a high dome or a deep belly pushes a design toward a bezel, and bezel-setting a cabochon has its own technique. For the broader comparison of domed and faceted stones, see cabochons versus faceted gems, and for surrounding a centre stone, prong setting versus bezel setting. Gem drawing fundamentals — guidelines, symmetry and accurate outlines — are covered in how to draw gemstone settings.
These reference charts come from the drawing module of JDMIS Creative Drawing and Essential Jewellery Knowledge, where students draw cabs and melée at actual size and enlarged. To test the identification side of the same stones, try the Name That Gem challenge.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cabochon?
A cabochon is a facet-less style of cutting a gemstone: a polished dome with a defined outline. Cabs are found mostly in opaque materials or lower grades of gem-quality material, and drawing one requires only the outline of its shape.
Which gems are usually cut as cabochons?
Jade, agate and amber are commonly cut as cabochons, along with softer translucent and opaque gems and any stone with patterns worth displaying. Sapphire and ruby can be cut en cabochon, but only their lower-clarity grades — fine material is more valuable faceted.
What does melée mean in jewellery?
Melée are small stones, usually 3 mm or less and typically round, most often small brilliant-cut or single-cut diamonds used as accents around a larger gem. Thread-work and pavé settings are built from melée.
Why draw fewer facets on small stones?
A full facet pattern drawn at 1–3 mm scale reads as dark and included rather than sparkling. Fewer facets — down to a simplified single cut — keep small stones looking bright in a design.