A day of stone setting

Today was the day - my first student in my new studio at the Sorting Office! Julie worked really hard learning a new stone setting technique - and as she set five tiny (3mm) faceted stones in a beautiful bangle I think it's safe to say that she learnt it well!

Soldering the discs onto the bangle - a delicate piece of soldering!

Julie didn't just set the stones. We had square wire to start with for the bangle but she decided that slightly rectangular wire would work better, so the first job was to send the wire through the rolling mill to flatten it. This had the added bonus of lengthening the wire too so she ended up with enough to make a matching ring - a project for a later date! Next was making the bangle, soldering five discs onto the outside to form frames for the stones, cutting the seats for the stones - and then setting them! An amazing amount of work for one day, even if Julie is one of my advanced students from my college evening classes.

I've still got to set up my photo studio so these were quick shots taken in the beautiful natural light in my studio.

Julie set the stones using flush setting. The seat for the stone is cut into the metal sheet or wire using burrs in a pendant drill so that the top of the stone is flush with the top of the silver. After the stone is pushed into place a burnisher is used to push some of wall around the seat down onto the stone to hold it in place. I think she did a beautiful job! There are five stones around the bangle - amethyst, aquamarine, quite a pink garnet, citrine and peridot.