Findings are the working parts of jewellery: the clasps, jump rings, ear wires, bails, bezel cups, heads and prongs that hold a piece together, hold it on the wearer, and hold stones in place. They are rarely the first thing a customer notices, but they are usually the first thing that breaks — which makes them a designer’s responsibility, not an afterthought.

Function first

Every finding has a mechanical job. A lobster clasp locks a chain; a jump ring connects parts and must be closed properly or it will catch and open; an ear wire carries the weight of a dangling earring and sets how it hangs. When a design calls for an unusual shape or weight, the finding has to be chosen for strength, not just for looks.

Design consequences

Good designers plan findings into a piece from the first sketch. Where the clasp sits changes the balance of a necklace; a bail’s size changes how a pendant lies; hidden versus decorative findings change the character of the design entirely. Knowing the standard catalogue of findings also tells you when a custom part is worth making.

Where to learn this

Findings are introduced alongside the essential vocabulary of jewellery in the foundation design programme at JDMIS — see the JD100 course page for the full syllabus, and the JDMIS jewellery blog for related design articles.

Gem cutting began with beads and polished dome shapes; faceting came much later, and both survive because they do different jobs. A cabochon — a gem with a smooth, domed top and a flat back — is the older style. A faceted stone carries a pattern of flat polished faces that together act as a machine for returning light to the viewer’s eye.

What each cut does with light

Cabochons show colour, phenomena and interior texture: the star in a star sapphire, the eye of a cat’s-eye chrysoberyl, the banding of agate all live in domes. Faceting is for transparency and brilliance: the cut angles are computed so light entering the top of the stone reflects off the back facets and exits through the front. That is why faceted stones are judged on proportions, and why a badly cut stone looks glassy no matter how fine the rough.

Choosing as a designer

Designers choose cut style on material, meaning and wear. Opaque and phenomenal stones want cabochons; transparent stones usually want facets. Mélée — small faceted stones in calibrated sizes — fills a design with sparkle at controlled cost, and calibrated cabochons of standard diameter drop into standard bezel findings. Drawing both accurately, including the ellipse of a cabochon’s dome and the facet planes of a cut stone, is part of design training at JDMIS (JD100 fundamentals, JD300 illustration); the gem materials themselves are covered in the gem trade course.

The setting is how a gemstone is held in metal, and its history runs alongside the history of jewellery itself. The oldest surviving styles are bezels — a band of metal pressed around the stone’s girdle — used since antiquity because they are secure, simple to make, and protect the stone’s edge.

Why prongs took over

Cut gemstones changed everything. Once faceting maximised a stone’s brilliance, setters wanted metal to cover as little of it as possible. The prong setting — small claws of metal holding the stone at its girdle — lets light enter from nearly every angle. It is the standard for solitaire diamonds today precisely because it shows the stone and hides the setting.

The families in between

Between bezel and prong lies a full catalogue: channel settings where stones sit in a row inside walls of metal; pavé where dozens of tiny stones are held by small beads raised from the surface; and tension settings where the metal’s spring holds the stone apparently in mid-air. Each family trades off security, light, cost and surface texture differently.

Why designers care

A designer who understands settings draws jewellery that can actually be made, and prices it honestly: a pavé band is far more labour than a bezel band. Setting styles are covered in the design curriculum at JDMIS and executed at the bench in the metalsmithing foundation course; the gem side of the story is part of GT100 gem and jewellery trade knowledge.

Good jewellery design is rarely a happy accident. It is the purposeful combination of a small set of visual elements — the building blocks of composition. The six that matter most to a jeweller are line, shape, form, texture, colour and space.

The six elements

Line directs the eye and sets the character of a piece — hard lines read architectural, curves read organic. Shape is the two-dimensional outline the eye reads first. Form is the three-dimensional reality of the finished piece on the body. Texture — polished, matte, hammered, granulated — controls how light plays across surfaces. Colour comes from metals, gemstones and enamels together. Space is the negative areas that let a design breathe, and the relationship of the piece to the body wearing it.

Elements versus principles

The elements are the vocabulary; principles such as balance, contrast, rhythm, emphasis and unity are the grammar that organises them. A designer’s judgement shows in how deliberately the elements are deployed — repetition of a shape for rhythm, contrast of matte and polish for emphasis, restraint in colour for elegance.

Training the eye

These elements are taught, practised and critiqued in the design programme at JDMIS, starting with the foundation design course and deepening through illustration and colour. You can see them at work across the pieces in the school’s jewellery blog.