Learn to Make Easy Rivoli Crystal Rings

December 15, 2015

Ready-made bezel ring settings will allow you to create great combinations of crystal color, metal color, and setting style to make fashionable, sparkly rings in a snap, without ever touching glue.

Swarovski Crystal Rivolis (Article 1122) come in a fantastic array of colors. Mix and match these colors with styles and platings of rivoli ring settings to make more rings than you have fingers!

The crown style bezel setting is fairly easy to manipulate with your bare hands, and has a vintage appearance.

Crown bezel ring settings.

In this piece, I have set the Crystal Scarabaeus Green 14mm rivoli stone in the antique brass plated 14mm crown bezel ring finding.

Scarabaeus Green with antique brass.

The stone will drop right into place inside the bezel.

If you have good hand strength, you can start bending down the bezel by hand. If you find that this takes more hand strength than you have, gently press down with flat-nose jewelry pliers.

Begin bending the bezel from opposite sides.

TIP: Bend a few bezel prongs on one side of the ring (3 o’clock), and then bend the prongs that are opposite these (9 o’clock). Fill in the setting by pressing down the prongs at the top (12 o’clock) and the bottom (6 o’clock). By working from side to side, rather than rotating around the ring, the stone should stay flat and centered.

Partially set ring with green stone.

Press down the remaining bezel posts to lock the stone in place.

Burnishing the bezel on the green rivoli ring.

You will only be able to press the bezels into place so far, without an additional hand tool of some sort, and here is where our handy Sharpie comes into play as a burnishing tool. A sharpie works great, as it is harder than your bare hands, but it has no sharp edges to chip or damage the crystal. Press the side of the sharpie against the edges of the bezel to finish setting the prongs in place. Work your way around the bezel to flatten all the prongs.

Scarabaeus stone set in place.

Voila, the Scarabaeus Green ring is done. Don’t you think this color combination is fantastic?

The post bezel setting is the other style and is more modern in appearance. It requires the use of pliers to bend the bezel posts.

Post bezel ring with crystal stone.

For this example, I have set the 14mm Crystal Silver Patina 14mm Rivoli stone in the 14mm silver plated post bezel ring blank.

The stone fits more closely in this setting than it does in the crown setting. Start by making sure you’ve placed your stone into the setting evenly. Carefully use your flat-nose pliers to press down on one of the bezel posts. This will hold the stone in place. Then switch to the opposite bezel post and gently press it down as well.

Bend the bezel post with flat nose pliers.

Remember that you will be applying much more pressure with the pliers than with your bare hands, so go slowly and carefully.

Silver Patina ring with 2 posts bent.

The posts at approximately 8 and 2 o’clock have been bent in the picture above. The posts at 5 and 11 o’clock can now be done as well.

Burnishing post bezels on the ring.

When all 4 posts are bent down, as with the crown bezel style, use the sharpie to burnish the post bezels flat to the stone, so they won’t snag on fabrics.

Another benefit with these ring settings is that they are initially adjustable, so you don’t have to stock up on ring settings in every size. Once the ring has an owner, you simply lock the ring into the correct size.

Make the adjustable ring the right size for the user.

Press the back side of the ring together until you have the right fit. Squeeze the prongs into place on the back of the ring, and you have set the size.

These same bezel styles are also available in pendant settings, meaning you can turn rivoli stones into sparkling pendants too.