Tiny Prim Ring Part, which holds the stone in place.. NEED HELP!!!

Hi, I just start to learn making jewellery. I'm specially interested in colorful gems but I have a serious problem.

I want to make a diamond ring's part "which holds the stone in place".

here is a sample link to understand what I mean:

http://www.diamonddealerdirect.co.uk/images_diamond/engagement_rings/emerald_cut/diamond_l/diamond_ring_CD006E.jpg

I have no idea about maya and has a few knowledge about sculpting. I can do my best with a good tutorial or a good teacher. just need help please.

There will probably be many opinions about this, and some disagreement..... IMO, it may not be worth the effort to put a lot of work into sculpting the details of a setting out of prims or a sculpty. Most people will rarely zoom in to appreciate the detail, and LOD considerations make it unlikely that they will even know that the detail CAN be seen. A detailed setting might also be primmy, which adds to the load on a sim.

That said..... you can probably make a very convincing and attractive setting with simple prims and careful texturing. You could draw the basket and prongs for a gemstone in Photoshop, for example, using transparency judiciously, and then apply it to a conical prim that you set your gem into.

that make sense but I dont know how to make this basket and prongs in photoshop. should I just draw it? can you give me more detail about steps please.

OK..... This is really quick and dirty, whipped together in about 3 minutes in Photoshop just to show the idea. The lower half of the photo is the texture itself -- just a simple fence-like cage of lines, bevelled to make them look rounded and then lightly highlighted to give them a faint luster. In the alpha channel, everything between the lines is black, so it's transparent. In the upper photo, I have uploaded the texture to SL, applied it to a hollow cone, and dropped a flattened hemisphere with a gem texture on top. The diameter of the gem is 0.028m.

It could definitely be made prettier if I took a bit more time. I'm sure that you, as a jewelry designer, can make a more attractive setting than this. Even as a rough idea, though, you can see that it is moderately convincing as a gem setting, especially since most people will never zoom in anywhere near this much.

thanks