Floating gems

I've been thinking about making these rings for a long time but couldn't devote the bench time until last weekend.  The general idea is that the settings sort of float between your fingers when you wear them--very little of the shank is visible. 

I made two of them--think assembly line--and I almost gave up on both of them.  In the planning process, I apparently gave not a single thought to the fact that I would have to balance the settings on the flattened top of the ring shanks to solder them on.  I finally got them on by sweat soldering the spots and using cross locking tweezers to drop the tube settings into their resting places.  That might have been attempt #17, and I was just relieved to get something to work.

All of the stones are 2mm; one ring has lavender cubic zirconia in the tube settings and the other, peridot.  I'm happy with the end result, but I don't know that I will be making more of these anytime soon...