Well, I'll continue this series and this blog although it appears from our Stats that I may just be 'journaling' to me, myself and Peg. Does anybody read these posts besides us? Oh well, onwards and upwards ... rant over (for the moment :-) ).
Our last 2 classes were all about setting a stone (but we used those glass pebbles you see in vases to help hold the stems and just look purty). I chose a purplish-blue color that I'll call Ultraviolet, the Pantone Color of the Year. The real objective was for us to learn to make a bezel, do more torch soldering, set the stone, and finally, cleaning and polishing using a Flex Shaft.
The ring band is .925 Sterling and textured. I did manage to file the joins right this time before soldering then had to file one side down because when texturing one of the sides grew a bit (Pic.1 below). The backplate is Copper and we sawed it into desired shape. The bezel is Fine Silver. On the right you see the all the components before they were soldered together.
While soldering the bezel to the backplate I accidentally touched the bezel with the pick before the solder took and it slid to one side! I liked the way it looked kinda 60s-Pop-Art-ish so it was a happy accident.
The different steps of stone-setting came next with measuring multiple times and making sure the stone fit into the bezel with just the right amount of play. I had to enlarge the bezel a smidge. In the middle pic below you can see that the bezel is too deep for the stone. There are several ways to fix that but Dana had me file down the bezel rather than lift the stone.
We learned how to use a 'Flex Shaft' and all it's awesome accessories to sand, clean, buff and polish our little 'oeuvres d'art' into the spectacular & amazing first-effort rings that we could proudly call our own creations from start to finish!
Oh, one of the girls brought in some Prolos. Everyone knew what they were but me. I'd never eaten them before (remember? I live on another planet) and since Rolos are one of my fave candies, I did eat a fair amount ...
Another class is definitely on my Wish List someday. For the moment, I have new techniques to practice, perfect and incorporate into my jewelry. I also feel more confident in using different tools.
A.
 |
| Reflections everywhere with this glass cabochon! |
The ring band is .925 Sterling and textured. I did manage to file the joins right this time before soldering then had to file one side down because when texturing one of the sides grew a bit (Pic.1 below). The backplate is Copper and we sawed it into desired shape. The bezel is Fine Silver. On the right you see the all the components before they were soldered together.
While soldering the bezel to the backplate I accidentally touched the bezel with the pick before the solder took and it slid to one side! I liked the way it looked kinda 60s-Pop-Art-ish so it was a happy accident.
The different steps of stone-setting came next with measuring multiple times and making sure the stone fit into the bezel with just the right amount of play. I had to enlarge the bezel a smidge. In the middle pic below you can see that the bezel is too deep for the stone. There are several ways to fix that but Dana had me file down the bezel rather than lift the stone.
We learned how to use a 'Flex Shaft' and all it's awesome accessories to sand, clean, buff and polish our little 'oeuvres d'art' into the spectacular & amazing first-effort rings that we could proudly call our own creations from start to finish!
Oh, one of the girls brought in some Prolos. Everyone knew what they were but me. I'd never eaten them before (remember? I live on another planet) and since Rolos are one of my fave candies, I did eat a fair amount ...
A.
Really great blog post!
ReplyDeleteThe whole series of posts was really interesting to read, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSetting a stone was another thing we couldn't do due to the time, we just got to watch the instructor make two little bezels for two ladies who had brought stones of their own. This is another thing I hope to learn eventually.
Cat, sounds like your class had a lot of students. I really liked this class & she keeps the size down to 7 or 8 max. That's how many working stations she has and it was 6 hours for 4 Sundays. I like the longer classes for anything artsy. Our 'stones' were glass cabs that she had on hand. I'd recommend a smaller class & now you know what questions to ask before signing up. Hands-on is really the best & preferred way to learn. Hope you can do that this year. I'd like to take another of her classes, but with Mom care it's a little difficult to coordinate a helper, sister's car availability, sister's availability ...
Delete