I HAVE LEARNED SOO SOO MUCH watching your videos! i am self taught and .. you have improved my work tenfold! im channeling you when i work!! lol thank you thank you! thank you! i just ordered a bunch of tools from Jewelry Arts Inc! and am soo excited to know how to use them!
LOVE your channel and am learning so much!!! Curious what the silver gauge and width is? It looks like butter! I started with Argentium ... now know that was not the way to go as a beginner silver smith.
This is 26 gauge fine silver, probably around 3 or 3.5 mm tall. Fine silver is lovely and soft to work with! :) I'm glad you are enjoying the videos. :) I can't tell you how nice it is to get feedback.
This ring project definitely provides practice grounds for making Iddy biddy bezels! Got the fusing down by Bez #4! I’m mixing 6x8 with 6x4 kingman cabs in FS… we shall see…
Thanks so much for your lessons. I have 2 questions. 1) You said after fusing you can put it on a mandrel and move it around....please I would like to understand what the objective of that could be especially since the mandrel is round and the bezel is oval or could be any other shape? 2) if making a ring, must the bezel be soldered on a back plate first before mounting on the ring? Should the backplate be sterling or fine silver, fused or soldered? Wish you could show us a process with a ring from start to finish. Thanks so much. I'm a beginner and a new sub and I'm learning so much from you.looking forward to your response
The objective is to smooth all all the lumps and bumps, I only do that for a round or oval stone, easy to reshape an oval. For fancy shapes , I just poof out the side with the seam, clean up and retweak the bezel to fit the stone. Generally the bezel should be attached to backsheet and anything else (wires, etc) before you attach to the ring shank. The choices for fused, soldered, sterling, fine silver, etc depend on what else is going on in the design and doesn't have a set answer, it varies with the variables. :) I have lots of videos showing all stages of construction progress, keep watching and you start to see how it all works.
This is fascinating. I love bezel setting, for both faceted and cab stones, because it provides a lovely secure setting that protects the stone, but I’ve never fused my bezels even tho I usually cut mine from 0.5 thickness fine silver plate. Dunno why cos I have done fusing using fine silver before, just never a bezel. Thank you for the information. I’ve subscribed and hope to see many more informative videos from you.
Hello Jeanette, thank you very much for your very informativ video. I appreciate it a lot, that you explain exactly why you are doing or not doing something👍🙂. I have two questions... Is there a reason not to use flux in this case and does this technic works also for sterling silver? Have e a nice weekend. Greetings from Germany Maren 🤗🤗🤗
You are very welcome! Flux is not helpful for fusing fine silver, it just gets in the way. Sterling won't fuse nicely, so if you use sterling bezels, solder them shut. :)