A Pain in My Bezel

Recent work with bezel pendants inspired me to pull out my stash of stones that have been sitting (and accumulating)
at my workbench.

Stones are my weakness when I get the chance to attend a bead show.

I like knowing that however I eventually use a stone or cabochon, the end result will almost certainly be unique.
Unfortunately, I've become convinced that my bezel pieces are unique because they have absorbed my angst and my solder-soul-crushing disappointments.

Although I did take some classes at one of the nearby art centers, most of my jewelry skills are self-taught with...
reading lots of books and trade magazines,
watching lots of YouTube tutorials,
obsessively perusing the Rio Grande catalog to try to figure out what tools do what tasks
and
lots and lots of trial and error.
While I like to think that my skills continue to evolve in a positive direction,
soldering has been, and remains, my Achilles' heel as evidenced by a recent project.

Like most of my soldering projects, I began this one with cautious optimism because I was creating a bezel for a largeish stone,
around 5.75cm squareish.

For the base, I selected metal that I had etched with a pattern created by the talented local clay master/jewelry designer,
Barbara Hanselman.

My original plan was to have a collar around the bezel, highlighting a selected view of the etched texture.

Then the soldering started,

and then my problems started.

I wasn't surprised when I didn't achieve a continuous flow of solder in my first attempt.

After a pickle bath and brass brush cleaning, I tried again.

Ughhh...

I realized that I had lost full contact between the bezel and the etched base in a few spots and gentle nudging with my solder pick was not correcting all the trouble spots.

There were repeated visits to the soldering bench, and after each clean-up, I set my stone in  place to make sure that I was maintaining the proper bezel shape.

A piece of dental floss was used to make sure I would be able to get the stone back out.

Too many attempts had me admitting defeat, and I decided to creatively cover up my solder misses.

Using my acetylene torch, I balled scraps of sterling and soldered them in place, turning my points of failure into points of interest.

The collar of etched metal no longer seemed to make sense, so I used my jeweler's saw to cut most of it away.

I will have to make better use of Barbara's lovely pattern on my next bezel project.

According to some rough calculations of time and materials,

I think I'll have to sell this pendant for $986.75.

Bezel Pendants Part Two

After completing two bezel pendants this weekend, I returned to my workbench , planning to make two necklaces....

and then I sat there, stymied.

Often, the obvious direction is already in my head and I can put all focus on the making of whatever I'm envisioning.

This was not one of those times.

Since I wasn't sure how to construct the necklace, I decided to use some of the sterling links that I had just soldered.

I shaped a section of heavy gauge wire to fit through the formed bail and drilled both ends for wire wrapped connections.

As I began to construct a chain of links, I became increasingly dissatisfied.

Nothing felt right about my approach.

The pendant, with its large stone cabochon and riveted layers, did not need competition from a busy chain of over-sized links.

I needed to simplify, letting the pendant be the unchallenged "it" of the necklace.

Sterling chain replaced my chain-of-links, although I kept two links for added interest and texture, appreciating how they mimic the shape of the bezel.

A liver of sulfur treatment and sanding block cleaning were the finishing touches.

Much better.

Bezel Pendants

While I was on a soldering-skills improvement campaign a while ago, 

I amassed a collection of bezel set stones that have been begging to become finished projects.

I successfully ignored these stones while they sat in a container on my workbench 

until last week when I decided my holiday line-up would need a few more signature/statement necklaces.

While I was working on my soldering skills, I unfortunately put no focus on how these bezeled beauties would eventually be featured as finished pieces of jewelry.

A smarter version of me might have incorporated a bail before I took the time to carefully and tenderly set the stones into their bezels, thereby eliminating the option of applying additional soldering-related heat.

I decided to revisit a previous design, soldering a bail on to a back layer that would then be riveted to the bezel layer.  

One bail-to-be was cut from a piece of etched metal.

After filing and sanding the edges, the piece was shaped with one of my bail forming pliers.

The second bail needed to be simpler, so a closed ring was joined with a previously soldered link that I cut open.

The cut link and the formed bail were soldered on to pieces of etched silver nickel that were cut to slightly larger dimensions that the bezel set pieces.

The matching layers were riveted together with segments of heavy gauge wire....

and I now have bezel set stones that can actually become pieces of jewelry.

L'Enfant Cheesecloth

This week's studio efforts have included etching and texturing different pieces of metal.

The metal will soon become earrings, necklaces and bracelets as I prepare for the holiday season.

I know, I know....it's not even Halloween yet; how dare I speak of the holiday season?

I have an appointment next week to drop off my inventory for the seasonal display at one of the galleries where I sell, 

so I am well into my sort-of-end-of-year busy schedule.

Assuming that nobody wants to see the same thing that they saw last year, I've been testing out some new textures.

A new favorite is this cheesecloth pattern that I etched into pieces of silver nickel.

I liked how the larger pieces looked after cleaning them with a brass brush post-etching, 

but I liked the pattern even more once I cut a selection of smaller pieces.

Seeing isolated bits of the cheesecloth texture made me think that they resembled plan views of an urban network of roads....

like Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for Washington, DC. 

Ooooopssss...

it's the landscape architect in me coming out.

Those little sections of roadways are due to become earrings late tonight.

Flighty Necklaces

My workbench has been seeing lots of activity as I prepare for the upcoming

Fine Arts & Crafts Festival 

presented by

Wallingford Community Arts Center.

Due to the impact of the Papal Visit on local/regional transportation, the location of the fair has been shifted from State Street in Media to the lovely downtown area of Swarthmore.

As I sit in the midst of what I hope will be the final heat wave of the year, it's hard to believe that I'm also preparing for the upcoming holiday season.

Inventory for one of the seasonal sales has to be delivered next month.

Aaaaaccckkkk!

 

The previous necklaces that I made featuring roll printed cicada wings appeared to be warmly received,

so it was time to make more.

Wings went through my rolling mill, sandwiched between pieces of annealed copper.

After cutting, filing and sanding, the copper wings were riveted with sterling wire to bases of etched brass and silver nickel.

Holes were drilled for attaching my tornado wire wrapping connectors, allowing me to turn the wings into fanciful pendants.

All wings are now hanging from long chains, ready to be tagged.

Ooooops....

I kind of got in the zone while wire wrapping the ends of my chains, joining the clasps and connectors and forgot to put one of the wings on.

Doh!

Easy fix...

I cut the chain in two places, slipped on the wing, and reconnected the parts with wire wrapped, faceted amazonite beads.

 

Workbench Equation

Recently made sterling links

PLUS

recently made bezel set labradorite charms

EQUALS....

 

new sterling/labradorite bracelet.

My typical tornado wrapping of sterling wire joins the components.

Also typical....

keeping the back interesting with and etched disc riveted to the back of my labradorite charm.

This bracelet just came off my workbench this morning and I'm giving it a test drive.

Verdict?

It's very lightweight, it captures the light nicely, it's fluid enough to move freely on my wrist....

 

I LOVE IT!!!

Sparkling Crystals

Beadfest was in town this past weekend.

Of course, I went and ended up coming home with a nice variety of gemstones as well as beautiful jasper cabochons for future bezels.

I like buying gemstones in person so that I can inspect the range of color, the quality of any faceting and the presence of any inclusions.

My purchases included aquamarine, apatite, peridot, garnet, labradorite

and some wonderful, large, briolette crystals.

Like all my gemstone purchases, I restrung the crystals on fishing line so that I could keep them organized in my studio.

Old, ugly, expendable beads were used as buffers between the crystals to hopefully avoid any damage as they hang with other inventory.

 

I had known right away that I wanted to do my tornado-style wire wrapping with the crystals,

and it was a little bit tricky.

The crystals are more fragile than many of the gemstones that I typically use.

Combine that fragility with the 19 gauge wire that I chose to work with and I had to be very careful as I did the wrapping.

Safety goggles were worn just in case some shattering happened. 



A simple necklace is what I aimed for, allowing the crystal to be the sparkling center of attention. 

The wrapped crystal hangs on a long chain that is interrupted with wire wrapped Herkimer diamonds (a fancified name for double-terminated quartz crystals discovered in Herkimer County, New York) and dangles of faceted labradorite and citrine.