Monday, January 24, 2011

More Bezels

I spent time in the studio making more bezels, but have not yet removed the disappointing heartache from the process. I love layering textures in my pieces and have been insisting on soldering my bezels onto etched or milled metal. This can create a problem since the bezel wire needs to have full contact with the base piece of metal for a successful flow of solder. It would be ideal to use a flat sheet of metal for my base, but that's just not what I want to do right now.

After several attempts, I did get successful solder joints for the above bezels. The base pieces were from my supply of etched silver nickle. The cabochons are again from my bag of stones that I bought at a gem show, and I have no idea what they are. I like the golden warmth of the left stone and chose to layer that with a piece of brass that is textured on the back. The connection between the silver nickle and the brass was made with balled copper wire that I turned into rivets.

I'm now making the golden cabochon piece into a necklace using sterling chain and wire. Small carnelian beads capture the rosy color of the balled copper and faceted honey jade complements the warmth of the cabochon and the brass base.
I'm also making a necklace out of the creamy white cabochon bezel that I made last week. A recycled sterling leaf (a pin in its former life) was riveted to the bottom of the copper base which now has stamped texture. A faceted amazonite bead atop an etched metal disc was riveted to the leaf with balled silver wire. The sterling chain is wire wrapped with faceted aquamarine beads, pearls and recycled crystal chain.

1 comment:

  1. I love these and rivetting them to a back piece is just another wonderful layer.

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