How To Prevent Pave Diamonds From Falling Out?

If you’ve owned a piece of jewelry with pave diamonds, you’ve probably asked yourself how to prevent pave diamonds from falling out.

That is not an unusual question since these gems tend to fall out much easier than the “regular” diamonds and because it’s much harder to prevent them from doing so compared to a standard diamond.

We all like to see the effect of breath-taking sparkling that pave diamonds have when set. Still, there are some risks involved if you decide to go with a ring or any piece of jewelry made using this method.

We guess that some of you already had this happen to you – and we know it’s an awful feeling when you notice one of your diamonds has fallen out.

Generally speaking, pave diamonds are so small that even if you noticed one falling out right away, you probably wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. These gems are tiny – and hence, easier to lose.

Because of this, we’ve decided to help you ensure that your pave diamonds won’t fall out – or rather prevent them from doing so.

If you’re interested in finding out how to do this, we highly recommend you keep reading. More importantly, be sure to remember the tips we’re about to share if you’re keen on preventing your pave diamonds from falling out!

What Are Pave Diamonds?

First of all, and for those new to this topic, we have to look at what pave diamonds are for you to understand what we’re about to talk about here.

“Pave diamonds” isn’t actually a precise term since it originates from the French language; it’s not originally an English phrase. When someone says “pave diamonds,” they’re usually referring to how diamonds are set – or rather the overall setting of the piece of jewelry in question.

This term is often used to describe rings since this technique of setting is most often used when it comes to crafting rings rather than bigger pieces of jewelry. That said, it’s not impossible to see a necklace or a bracelet with pave diamonds.

A pave setting of diamonds originates from France. “Pave” in French means “pavement” – and that’s exactly how these diamonds look once set. A pavement of small diamonds side by side to each other makes it look like the pavement that never stops shining!

Naturally, these diamonds are prone to falling out since they’re tiny and the amount of adhesive used to keep them in place is even smaller.

So, if you started noticing that a few diamonds from your pave diamond jewelry pieces fell out, know that that’s to be expected.

You can look at pave diamond pieces of jewelry as purely aesthetic; they’re not exactly made for excessive use.

These small diamonds are the safest when they’re in a showcase or in the original packaging of the jewelry piece they came with – and don’t usually stand a chance when it comes to daily wear and tear.

But, it’s not fun to hold pieces of jewelry that you’d like to wear hidden in some box, is it?

So, we’re here to tell you all about how you can avoid this!

Related Read:

Why Do Pave Diamonds Fall Out?

You need to understand the cause of this happening in the first place. That’s the only way for you to understand the solution – and the prevention methods – much better. As we’ve said earlier, these diamonds are tiny, and they generally are one-fifth or one-tenth in size of the central diamond of a particular jewelry piece.

We’re saying this because this technique of embedding diamonds is often used in jewelry pieces with a bigger diamond in the center. The pave diamonds are just the surrounding attributes.

Some pieces of jewelry are purely designed to hold pave diamonds and nothing else, so you might come across a ring that fits this description, too.

Either way, when making these types of jewelry pieces, extreme care and caution are used – since these diamonds are small, fragile, and quite hard to handle.

Because of this, jewelers that make these types of pieces of jewelry tend to use less glue, less pressure when setting, and overall much more delicate processes to embed these diamonds into pieces of jewelry.

And, well, the answer to our question of why pave diamonds fall out lies in the sentence above. All of these factors do count when it comes to pave diamonds – and their tendency to get loose.

But, in order to eliminate any potential confusion, let’s take a look at each one of these reasons – and see how important of a role they play in the answer.

1. Way Less Glue Than Needed

This reason is probably the biggest one when it comes to pave diamonds falling out, and it’s the most understandable – so, we’re going to start with it.

Pave diamonds are usually kept in place by a special jewelry glue applied to the base of the ring – or another piece of jewelry – in question.

After applying the glue, the jeweler will put the diamond in and hold it in place.

When bigger diamonds are set, more glue is used, and regardless of that diamond being bigger than the paved ones, it is still kept in place much better.

That doesn’t apply to the diamonds embedded into jewelry using different techniques requiring pressure, unique designs, etc. – only those held in place with adhesive.

When pave diamonds are set, the amount of adhesive (or glue) is way smaller, and it doesn’t hold these small diamonds in place as well or for as long as some bigger diamonds are held in place.

Learn More: Do Diamonds Look Bigger Once Set?

2. Not Enough Pressure When Setting The Diamonds

After the adhesive has been applied, there needs to be some kind of tension or pressure used on the said diamonds to help the glue dry – and ensure the diamonds set as they should.

That goes hand in hand with the first reason for this happening – and that’s the “too little glue” problem.

In situations like these, you shouldn’t blame the jewelers that make these pieces of jewelry. But the weird thing is that you don’t have anyone else to blame, either!

It’s just something that happens with these types of diamond settings. Jewelers are aware of how fine these small diamonds are, so they approach them with extreme care and caution.

As a consequence of this, these diamonds are often not held in place with enough force – or not long enough – causing the pave diamond to be more prone to falling out.

3. A Delicate Process

As we’ve mentioned before, the process of setting pave diamonds is quite a delicate one. That’s why jewelers put much more time and energy into it.

The fact that these diamonds are much smaller than the regular 1-carat or 1.5-carat diamonds commonly used in jewelry pieces doesn’t help, either.

Because of this, even the most experienced jewelers refrain from using a firm enough grip or a strong enough adhesive when making a piece of jewelry with pave diamonds in it.

We don’t think that people realize how small these diamonds are and how delicate they can be.

When dealing with an object so small, there’s a lack of good grip and precision without proper tools – and sometimes even with them. That’s just how things are.

How To Actually Prevent This From Happening?

Now that you have some fundamental knowledge on the subject, let’s see what you – as an owner of a jewelry piece with pave diamonds – can do about this.

A majority of people who have these jewelry pieces don’t know that there are a few things they can do to prevent their pave diamonds from falling out. But that’s why we are here!

First, a reminder:

Unfortunately, there aren’t too many things you can do to prevent pave diamonds from falling out – but there’s still a thing or two that’s up to you. Taking good care of your jewelry is generally a good place to start.

Let’s see what you could do – and then we’ll talk about every solution individually. The recommended methods are:

Regular checkups in a jewelry store
Not wearing your pieces with pave diamonds often
Keeping them steady when not worn
Avoiding blunt force trauma to any of your jewelry pieces

All of these might seem more than obvious to you. However, trust us when we say – people still tend to forget about these things in day-to-day life.

1. Regular Checkups In A Jewelry Store

Regularly bringing your pieces of jewelry to a good jewelry store – or the jewelry store you’ve bought them in – is always a good idea.

Not only when it comes to pieces of jewelry containing pave diamonds, but your jewelry pieces in general. There, jewelers can check up on all of your diamond pieces and clean them, but cleaning is not our main focus here:

When you ask your jeweler to check up on all of your diamonds, including your pave diamonds, they’ll see if they’re loose, if the adhesive has gone dry, and if there’s any chance of them falling out.

If they see a diamond or two looking loose, they could give you a heads-up about it and tell you it’s time to put a new adhesive underneath.

That could be enough to prevent your diamonds from falling out and help you make sure that all of your diamonds are in place!

2. Don’t Wear Them Often

That may not be something an owner of a piece of jewelry containing pave diamonds wants to hear – but it’s the truth.

We get it; wearing these pieces of jewelry is the reason you’ve bought them. However, wearing them regularly – as in, daily – isn’t something that’ll help you keep all of your pave diamonds in place.

Rings are the worst pieces of jewelry here since they’re worn almost every day and have the most contact with the things around you.

When a ring, for example, is worn daily and you wear it on your dominant hand, that means that it will undoubtedly get hit, pushed against – or withstand damage in other ways.

All of that could loosen the diamonds and makes them fall out easier.

So, if you’d like to minimize the chances of your pave diamonds falling out, wear them on only special occasions rather than daily.

3. Keep Them Steady When Not Worn

That may seem obvious, but considering that wearing your pave diamond pieces of jewelry can make them more likely to fall out, keeping them safe might help you slow down the process – or maybe, avoid it entirely.

Keeping your jewelry pieces in their original packaging or a showcase box could be helpful for more than one reason:

For example, if one of your pave diamonds falls out while you’re not wearing it, you could easily detect that and search the showcase it was sitting in when it happened. There’s a chance of you finding the missing diamond there – which is good news!

4. Avoid Full-Force Impacts To Your Jewelry Pieces

That is probably the most obvious tip on this list.

By keeping your pieces of jewelry containing pave diamonds – or any piece of jewelry, for that matter – far from direct impacts or falling on the floor from a high place, you can prevent your pave diamonds from falling out or being destroyed.

The force with which a piece of jewelry hits another surface – the floor, the countertops, and the like – could be enough to make a small pave diamond loose and fall out as a consequence.

Keep your jewelry away from situations where something can hit them if you want to ensure that your pave diamonds don’t fall out – or at least not fall out more often than usual!

Summary

For those who are still wondering how to prevent pave diamonds from falling out, let’s do a quick summary of top tips:

Regular checkups at your local jewelry shop
Don’t wear them on a regular basis
Keep them safe when not worn
Avoid physical damage

If you follow these four guidelines, you won’t have a problem with your pave diamonds falling out regularly.

Another good thing is that these guidelines are also used to protect your pave diamonds even if they do fall out – by making them easier to find and preventing damage.

If you remember these four straightforward rules, you’ll enjoy your jewelry for a very long time without getting frustrated about the potential risks of losing one – let alone more – of your pave diamonds!