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.

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 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 !