I think this is the first question that comes to mind for someone brand new to working silver and other metals for jewelry design. I know it was for myself.

One important benefit to annealing is that the process makes the silver easier to handle during the bending and shaping process.

Using a higher gas to oxygen ratio and not using the flux will result in very little oxidization with the higher acetylene ratio.

Annealing is the process of making smaller crystal structure in the metal. The larger the crystal in the metal the harder it is to bend and the more likely it is to crack or break. Since metal crystals grow in size based on their cooling conditions, the the size is controlled with the speed which you cool it.
Fast cooling produces small more uniform crystals, slow cooling produces larger more interlaced crystals. THus heating to red and then quickly quenching produces fine crystal structure. Heating metal up and then letting it air cool produces the more brittle material (larger crystals). Holding it at he crystallization point for a long time will grow much larger crystals. (See link below.)
You would normally never anneal a piece after it is complete as that makes it the most soft. You might anneal a part of something that will be forced to flex as that will make it less likely to break, but it’s still only a temporary fix.
Metals also do what is called work hardening. As you hammer, pend or compress the metal it will slowly make it more brittle. Hence you often hammer (as in forging) for a time, then anneal to return it to a softer more more pliable state, hammer again, anneal again, etc. etc.

Just heat the metal to cherry red ?

Metal is a crystalline structure, so when you heat it, the crystals expand, forcing gaps in between the microscopic crystal cells. When you polish, hammer, or even with age, metal crystals compact, making it hard. If you heat it to cherry red, you damage the structure. Yes, it will be soft, but over doing it will cause possible damage that will become evident while working the metal later on. I used to do this, and hammer blows would crack the soft metal or force air pockets into it.
The ink in a Sharpie marker dissipates at the correct temperature for sterling to anneal. I dip my metal into a mixture of alcohol and boric acid, light it, and wait for the flame to finish spreading the boric evenly over the piece. However you can use whatever flux you are familiar with; some just use a charcoal block without any flux. Really, it doesn’t matter since annealing, shouldn’t get close to firescale temps.
Then while the piece is warm and dry, scribble on it with a black Sharpie marker. Heat with a fluffy yellow flame till the marker dissipates and the black marks vanish, then quench in water or pickle. The quench is important to get the softest silver possible. I was told to do use the marker till I get used to watching for the flux to glisten and there to be a slight red glow that can only be seen in the dark. But, since I have great lighting in my studio, I just keep a Sharpie in the pocket of my apron. I guess the Sharpie is my crutch, but I have never over-annealed a piece since.
In reverse, if you have a project, and you want to harden the metal, as in a ring band or chain, you can place it in a kiln at 600 degrees for about an hour, and the crystalline formations will compact, the longer the harder.

From Ganoksin bulletin board

Sterling silver is at its softest when it is annealed at 650C (1202F) then immediately quenched, at this point it’s hardness is 56 Vickers and its tensile strength is 300 Nmm -2. If it is air cooled it will be only slightly harder at about 60 Vickers due to the difference in crystal structure.
Some people confuse air cooling with the age hardening process where sterling silver can be greatly hardened by heat treating. To do this you first heat the sterling to 750C (1382F) and hold it at this temp for 30 minutes then rapidly quench the item is then heated to 300C (572F) for 1 hour. this will result in a sterling piece that has a hardness of 110-120 Vickers and a tensile strength of 350 Nmm -2. The heat treatment can only be done on items that are NOT soldered as 750C will melt all silver solders if the item has been soldered prior to treatment and soldering after treatment will anneal the item and remove all the hardness gained.

After it arrived, I quickly realized after trying to push the floral like bezel and prongs that nothing was going to budge!

After some discussion and another attempt at pushing it was obvious that at least the floral like bezel setting was too thick to move. It was a bit hard to believe that at least the prongs would not budge.

Well as things turned out, I was pretty disappointed as it became apparent that there was no way around having to glue the darn stone into the setting. I sure would not have purchased it if I had known.

My next purchase I will sure be paying closer attention.. This was a lesson learned.. Glad it was not too expensive and that I did not purchase all three that I will need during this first purchase.

If I can’t find a blank with a push type bezel setting then will buy the blank with a flat top and solder my own bezel setting.

I wanted to try another like 1Rockhounds Biggs Jasper piece with the bezel tape on the outside of the backing. Except I tried another attempt at using flattened wire for the backing again instead of cut out sheet backing.

The order of the images are out of order, but the step are correct.. Hope not too confusing..

Step One Image B shows how I fit the shaped wire to the inside of the stones perimeter. Works out once the wire is flattened out as it spreads.
Any smaller a gauge and I realized that needed a little more flattened surface area to be able and have enough extra room to play with when fitting it to the stones size.

Step Two Image A shows the 12 gauge round wire slightly flattened.

Step Three Image D shows the wire flattened and the perimeter filed to the match the stones outer edge.

Step Four Image F shows the flattened wire ends soldered together.

Step Five Image G and H shows it cleaned up a bit and additional filing to the inside of the flattened wire so it is somewhat uniform in shape on the inside.

Step Six Image I shows the bezel tape shaped to the outside of the flattened wire backing with the ends soldered together. It only took me three tries to get this part right ! Also important to file down any excess solder on the inside of the bezel tap joint. Otherwise will have problems when trying to solder it to the outside of the backing.

Initially I use a fairly stiff wire bristle wheel followed up with the 3M bristle discs. These discs work well..

Step 7 Image K.. I like to use silver solder paste for filling the space between the bezel tape and backing. Just seems to work nicely. I am sure any other solder would work just fine.

Step 8 Image L is from the back after soldering the tape to the backing. One problem I had was the flattened wire ends came apart and became un-aligned (lower right of image L). I tried to re-heat and press back in place but it would not budge. Stuck with it as it is.. It also resulted in not having a completely nice flat backing after sanding the whole thing on a flat surface.

Images M and N are after I used bezel pusher followed up with a burnishing tool to press the tape against the stone.

This is where things went further South on me too. As the bezel pusher created little indentations that I could not smooth out with the burnishing tool. Next time will pass on using the bezel pushing tool and just use the burnishing tool.

This was because I did not fit the outside of the backing “perfectly” to the outside of the stone. The result was extra gap that forced me to push the bezel tape further than would have been necessary if it was fit properly to begin with.

On this particular setting I am going to metal glue a bail to the top back once I can order some from Rio. Normally I would solder the bail on, but became impatient and went ahead and set the stone today. Not something will be getting in the habit of doing in the future… Just got in a hurry to see how it was going to look and knew I could not order any bails for a while.

Had been making some with fair success, but going to start spending a few extra dollars on some nicely finished ones from now on..

The end results show I need more practice !!

Thanks for reading and feel free to share any of your own soldering trials, tribulations or even successes with me !

There were some difficulties going through the first soldering.

Any way, worth a blog post!

If your here, show me some love and tell me how you like it. I am always interested in comments and suggestions on how to improve.

So don’t be shy, and please post your two cents. Would be greatly appreciated!

Of course if your like me and just starting out making some jewelry, be sure to join in to the forum and either share your expertise or learn from others.

Thanks for stopping in!

Fine silver bezel wire. Wrap a strip of fine silver bezel wire around the base of a cabochon. Test fit and adjust the bezel over your cabochon on a flat surface. There shouldn’t be any gaps but the stone should slide in and out of the bezel easily. When you have a good fit, mark the spot where the wire overlaps. Cut it flush (err on the side of too long vs. too short) and file the ends, if necessary, to create a tight seam when the ends are butted together. Check the fit again before sealing.

Method 1: Embed the bezel into the clay and seal the joint neatly with paste clay. (Keep most of the paste on the outside of the joint so you don’t change the fit of the bezel.) Let the clay dry, fill any gaps, dry and fire.

Method 2: Seal the joint of the bezel with paste clay or, better yet, Art Clay Oil Paste. When dry, fire the bezel separately, file the seam smooth and embed in “raw” clay as above.

Tips:

1) The bezel wire must be wide enough to hold the stone in place securely after burnishing, plus 1mm to embed in the clay.

2) Scuff/sand the area of the bezel that will come in contact with the metal clay to give it some “tooth.”

3) With a fine-tipped marker, draw a guide line scant 1mm away from the lower edge of the bezel wire to help you embed the bezel in the clay to an even depth.

Paper-type or sheet metal clay bezels for cabochons. Beautiful custom bezels can be created with paper-type (sheet) metal clay to accommodate cabochons of any size and shape. This technique was pioneered by metal clay artist Jennifer Kahn. Her excellent chapter in the superb book “PMC Technic” (see “Books About Setting Gemstones In Metal Clay,” below) explains in detail how to size the bezel setting so that it fits correctly after firing and offers some variations.

Embedded silver bezel cup settings for calibrated cabochons. For calibrated cabochon stones, you can embed either 1) fine silver bezel cups or 2) sterling silver bezel cups that have been “depletion gilded” (heated and pickled repeatedly to bring the oxides to the surface and remove them, leaving a layer of fine silver on the surface). The settings must be embedded securely into the clay in such a way that the clay can shrink-lock them into place. For depletion gilding sterling silver findings, you can use a traditional pickling product like Sparex, or Silver-Prep from Cool Tools which is supposed to be safer.

I always cut gemstone cabochon sets like these from the same slab. The idea being to have an awesome matching appearance by utilizing colors, grain, and or combinations of mineral types.

I have just received most all the items necessary to do my own bezel settings. The silver backing, bezel tape, soldering paste, torch setup, jewelers files, saw, etc…

I keep hoping for the opportunity to have someone show me in person how to do the actual soldering so as not to waste the rather pricey silver.

A member from my local rock and mineral club offered, and just a matter of getting with her and her husband when they have a minute. Hopefully in the next few days. Then will come back and show off my first bezel setting!

It was the anticipation of doing bezel work as well as learning how to set the bezel tape in silver metal clay that started the creative juices to flow in regards to these multiple sets. The anticipation is killing me, and can’t wait to start offering a few in my store.

When asked a few months ago what some of my long term goals are, one of my responses was to have a little line of my own jewelry to be able and offer. Seems like it is coming together, but rather slowly…

When I do a search online for gemstone jewelry in bezel type settings, it is a little discouraging when I see how cheap some top of the line jewelry can sell for.

Just like the selling of gemstones. Very competitive and ya have to have especially unique minerals to work with so that the gemstones cut from it are more appealing than the next guy.

Seems the same with silvers mithing, silver metal clay, and even bezel type settings. So my little special niche that I hope will make a little difference are going to be these multiple gemstone sets.

Maybe it’s just me and the thought that the beauty is only in the eye of the beholder, but I sure want to believe that really unique matching sets like these will give me a little edge in being able to sell the pieces I make.

Any way…, here are just a few examples would like to share with anyone who stumbles upon this blog entry. You can click on each of the descriptive links to enlarge for a better look.

Brazilian Rainbow Agate

Imperial Stichtite accented with Zoisite Crystals

Mexican Lace Agate

Imperial Spider Jasper

Rainforest Jasper

Lemon Chrysophase

Another Mexican Lace Agate

Another of the Imperial Stichtite with the Zoisite Crystal accents

Of course, as always, if you see something that strikes your fancy and would like to have something along these lines made for you. Feel free to contact me and will be happy to cut and shape similar multiple sets from a variety of minerals available.

Here are just a few examples of different types of jasper gemstone cabochons available at TaoGem Gemstones. Available in any size or shape. Both in individual freeform cabochons, or matched earring cabochon pairs.

I am happy to cut and shape any of the many available jasper material that I have in stock to your specs. It is a great way for gemstone jewelry designers to be able and complete that unique piece of jewelry. Multiple matched stones available too!

Beautiful Rainforest Jasper gemstones!

Leopard Skin Jasper gemstone cabochons

Rare and Beautiful Red Ocean Jasper Gemstone Cabochons

Fantastic Owyhee type Picture type Gemstone Cabochons

One of a kind interesting and totally unique Picture Jasper gemstone cabochons!

These are but a very few examples. Just a little something to get you to consider purchasing from my store or using the contact form and contacting me for your special gemstone cut requests

Have a great day!

I decided to practice what I preach from a previous blog entry, and will design my first piece more around the design / shape of the stones. Then work second with the shape of the silver clay setting.

Of course I have a bit of an advantage as I am able to design my first piece around any shape and type of stone I desire. Again a big advantage to working with a lapidary if you are designing custom gemstone jewelry or other gemstone related artwork.

A book that was loaned to me is really helping a whole lot.

One thing that I had not thought about and wonder, is if the instructor will be bringing bezel tape for nice proper settings. I am thinking that as a beginning class it will be pretty basic, and likely will be glad I brought my own.

Being my first time, did not want to get too complicated and yet I want to take advantage of the hands on instructions as well as utilizing the bezel tape, as I foresee using the bezel tape in all my future metal clay work.

A book titled “Metal Clay” by Jackie Truty.

It shows how the tape will be set into the clay. Then if the stone is a little bit too short in height, material can be added under it to bring it up to working height in regards to rolling the tape properly over the beveled edge of the stone.

Here are the matching stones that I would like to use in my first setting.

Here is somewhat how the stones will be set in the metal clay setting. I am going to try a double setting my first try! These two stones are matched in the sense that the spider webbing effect of the Jasper was lined up and cut from the same piece so that when the stones are set, although separate, will match and hopefully look unique.

As my stones are now, they are just a bit too high in comparison to the height of the bezel tape. Especially by the time the tape is pushed down into the clay prior to drying in the kiln.

I will take just a hair off the bottom to make them set properly.

Every time I see settings made by silversmiths, bezel work, wire wrapping and metal clay, I get an anxious feeling inside tugging at me to get busy with one of them.

I have one customer in particular who is truly an expert metal clay artist / jewelry designer. She uses many of my stones in her designs. She commented to me how Art Clay has a shrinkage rate of 8 to 9 percent and Precious Metal Clay has a shrinkage rate of 12 to 15 percent. A person can become familiar with either of the two metal clays shrinkage rate after some time.

Most people seem to settle in with which ever of the two they start out with.

Smaller cabs seem to be preferred over larger and heavier gemstone cabochons due to the weight difference. I do offer a great many smaller cabs. That is one reason she sends her students to me for browsing through my gemstones.

I live just north of Spokane Wash, USA. I am presently looking for someone that offers classes in the area.

There is a forum operated by Rings and Things out of Spokane, but presently they are not offering classes. I just joined the forum and will be asking for some help with finding classes.

The prospect of actually designing gemstone jewelry is really exciting for me. It is on the top of my list for realistic goals for TaoGem this year. With a little luck combined with actually developing some metal clay skills, I hope to add a line of metal clay jewelry to my store.

Hopefully I will be able to spark some discussion and maybe even share in the art with others on my Lapidary / Gemstone Community forum as I learn. Not to mention that I am looking forward to posting some blog entries as I go as well !

Wish me luck, and if you are reading this, and working with metal clay, please keep checking back to monitor my success. I will share more in the days ahead !