There is a pleasure that comes when you achieve a basic jewelry making technique. This is also the case when setting a beautiful stone on to a well design jewelry piece. A well designed setting must achieve several goals - it must secure and protect the stone, enhance the jewelry design, and it should be in harmony with the aesthetics of the piece.
The basic jewelry making technique you use when you set a cabochon stone is fairly easy to learn when you follow specific steps. This is the simplest of the basic settings. The stone sits on the base plate and is held by the perpendicular wall that surrounds the stone. This wall is pressed over the stone so that it leans against it, in this way securing it to the piece.
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Bezels are most commonly used for cabochons, a gem shape that has a flat bottom. Because light does not usually enter a bezel set stone from behind, the setting is most commonly used for opaque stones.
Step by Step Instructions to Set a Cabochon Stone
• Begin by measuring the fine silver bezel (I order mine from Rio Grande Jewelry Supply) around your stone and allow a small overlap. Mark the bezel with a scribe or a sharpie marker and cut. Make sure that both ends are cut perfectly straight. This will make soldering the ends easier.
• Line up both ends of the bezel and make sure that they are flat by lightly pressing with your flat nose pliers.
• Set the lower part of the bezel into a loose soldering compound. I prefer to use odorless kitty litter. Flux the seam and place a small pallion of hard solder on top of the join. Using a bushy flame heat the bezel until the solder melts and seals the seam. You have to control the flame carefully to ensure that you do not melt the fine silver bezel.
• Remove the heat, quench the bezel in water and then soak it in the pickle. After about five minutes in the pickle solution take it out, rinse it in water and dry. Test the fit of your bezel by pushing the cabochon through the bezel from either side; the fit should be very snug.
• The Bezel is to too large? Don't worry you can cut the seam (removing the old solder), measure it again by wrapping it around the cabochon and re-solder. If the bezel is too small, stretch the bezel wire on a mandrel, or start over.
• Once you are satisfied with the fit of the bezel, fit it around the cabochon and carefully transfer it to the back plate. Make sure that you do not change the shape of the bezel. Place you piece on a tripod with a heat screen.
• Cut small medium solder pallions on a fire brick and melt them until they become small balls.
• Flux the back plate making sure that you bring the flux to the edge of the bezel. Place the tiny balls ¼ inch apart around the perimeter of the bezel. Heat from below until the solder melts and the seam is filled. Pickle the piece, rinse in clean water and dry.
• To ensure that cabochon fits into the bezel, use a piece of thread or dental floss behind it to test the fit.
• When a cabochon is smaller than the bezel use the floss to pop the stone. Reduce the height of the bezel by sanding it face down on a piece of 200 sand paper.
• Once the soldering is completed, polish the area around the bezel with a small felt wheel and Tripoli compound. Complete the polishing process by using rouge. Make sure not to allow the bezel to get caught on the wheel.
• Place the cabochon in the bezel. Using a burnisher ( I prefer to use a hard wood burnisher) start pressing on the bezel using a rocker clock wise motion. Work around the stone, pushing the bezel down with opposing moves to keep the stone centered and to keep the bezel from getting pleated. Smooth the pushed bezel with the burnisher by rubbing around the outer edges with a consistent pressure.
• Many times I use a two part epoxy to secure the stone into the back plate before securing the bezel. This ensures that the stone will stay in place at all times.
• Be careful not to get polishing compounds on the stone as they can stain. Do not get soap and water under a transparent stone as it will discolor the metal.
The more you practice the more you will master the use of this basic jewelry making technique.
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