Stone setting

[ps_bond]

A course I haven't actually been on yet...

While dissolving brass and steel into gunk yesterday (electoretching!) I had the opportunity to have a chat with a full-time setter. His name's Thomas Wellburn (http://www.thebespokejeweller.co.uk), he's based at Making Space (http://www.makingspace.org) in Havant and he's running a 10 week course on mounting or setting. He's teaching pavé from the start - on the grounds that once you've got the hang of that, all the other settings are easy... Oh, and he's just won a Gold Award in the 2011 Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council (http://www.craftanddesigncouncil.org.uk/11-CraftSetters.html) awards for gemstone setting.

Should be fun :)

[Di Sandland]

I want his Quince necklace if he's giving it away :-)

I would just love to learn from him. Maybe when we sell our inherited house - in this market it's not looking like it will be anytime soon tho :-(

[ps_bond]

It's lovely, isn't it? I'll ask him if he can offer it up as a freebie, but I think I know the answer :D

Booked & paid for, starting on 11 May. I've got the tools list, and I'm not sure there's anything I need to buy on it...

[snow_imp]

Just had a look at his gallery - wow! And that Quince necklace is rather special.

[ps_bond]

The course starts this evening - I'm kind of looking forward to it. I even had to buy a new graver for it - or so I thought, until I found I already had a suitable bullstick to match the new one that arrived. Oh well.

If people are interested, I can do a brief write-up week to week?

[Joe]

If people are interested, I can do a brief write-up week to week?

Yes please!!

[Dennis]

Yes you can be our stone wright.

[snow_imp]

Ooh, yes please Peter.

[lorraineflee]

Yes please Peter!
Lorraine

[ps_bond]

Week 1:

This session was mainly given over to tool preparation (i.e. setting up gravers & scorpers) and some basic engraving & bead raising exercises. As all 5 of us already have a fair amount of experience, this has gone quite quickly - so no hanging around. It's still the bright cutting that gives me the most aggro - we've been raising a line of beads, then cutting around them to highlight them. Having become used to using my microscope, it's a bit strange falling back on the Optivisor!

No photos as yet - there's not much to show.

[Tabby66]

Week 1: Having become used to using my microscope, it's a bit strange falling back on the Optivisor!

No photos as yet - there's not much to show.


Do you mean a "proper","scientific" microscope?? what magnification......just thinking of my ever-failing eye sight!!

[ps_bond]

That depends upon the scientist :)

It's a Nikon stereo zoom doing 6-40x IIRC, but I've got it fitted with a 0.5x lens to give me more space under the objective. Finally bought an articulated arm for it a couple of months ago, so it has only been getting used for this since then.

S/H stereo microscopes crop up on EBay fairly often, they don't have to be zoom ones to be useful.

[ps_bond]

Week 2:

An introduction to the use of the bullstick scorper - the shaping of which is slightly different to the normal way of using the others. So, we spent our time setting this up - I've not used one before, so this wasn't a tool I had ready prepared. We then drilled some copper to start off some bearings, followed by widening out the holes & creating a taper bore just using the bullsticks. Again, not something I've done before - I've always gone in with a bud burr for round stones so it is an interesting exercise. The aim with this was to get the bearing cut so the 4mm CZs we're working with sit level & flush; completed 2 last night, did another one this morning.

Marcia Lanyon (http://www.marcialanyon.co.uk/) were there last night as well... I managed not to get *too* carried away with things, just bought some 3mm pink tourmalines, a couple of peridot bullet cabochons and a piece of tourmalated quartz that I liked the look of. The £600 tourmalines were quite appealing, but I resisted (quite liked the 1.1 carat diamond too, but never mind!).

[Dennis]

Let us know how you set the bullets without a wobble then Peter, and wthout any banned words.

Dennis.

[ps_bond]

Epoxy :D
They're a relatively shallow taper on them at the base, so I'm hoping they shouldn't be too bad.

[ps_bond]

A photo of the practice piece at the moment:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3068/5738799121_4829603873.jpg

No, not desperately exciting at the moment I know! :)

[ps_bond]

Week 3:

Bead raising with bright cutting. Continuing with the settings in the picture, we've now got the stones locked in with beads at 4 points and at the least done the rough cutting for the bright cut. I've got 2 of 4 mostly bright cut, need to finish them. My bright cutting is better with direction (the corners are much improved in particular), but it still isn't good enough - going to need a lot more practice! We've also covered a few "oops" scenarios - what to do in the event of cutting beads off, for example...

No lesson next week; I'll need to cut some more bearings to do more practice... Because I'm specifically wanting to practice the bright cutting, I'll probably cheat and do most of the bearing with a bud burr rather than the bullstick.

[lilia]

Do you have any pics? :-)

[ps_bond]

Not yet - I'll try to get some done over the weekend.

[ps_bond]

OK - here's a shot of a 3.75mm CZ set in gilding metal. I've got a number of criticisms of it so far - the bright cut is faceted, the beads have a small amount of flashing on them, the corners are still too ragged for my liking - but this isn't terribly easy to see with the naked eye, let alone the Optivisor.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/5779972719_3bd3440b4c_m.jpg

Ended up hand-cutting the bearing again.

I probably ought not to mention that I was very slack doing this one - sat on the floor, with a Yorkshire terrier trying to stand on my shoulder...

[ps_bond]

Oops - forgot last Wednesday's update; started setting 5 in a row. 3.75mm stones, 3.9mm centre to centre on the bearings. The stones are all in, with 4 grains apiece, and I've started cutting the surround for them; tomorrow I should finish it, raising some additional grains between the stones. The cutting's only rough at the moment, so I'll hold off on the photos at the moment.

[lynnm]

such lovely work... I envy you Peter

[ps_bond]

I've been really lucky to find this course - Tom's tuition is very clear.

Last night's efforts: Finished off the 5 in a row, raised grains 5 & 6 around the adjacent stones and finished the bright cutting. I've started cutting a channel setting for 5 square stones now; the middle stone's bearing is done, the adjacent 2 are getting there - I'll probably complete them over the course of next week. We've started discussing possible projects; I want to do some more pavé work, looking at clusters in particular, but I might make a traditional cluster ring - possibly something like the one here (http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/antiquedetail.asp?autonumber=91389).

Pictures soon...!

[ps_bond]

An update: Worked on the channel setting some more last night - it's almost done, all the stones are in but I want to make sure they're properly secure before moving onto bright cutting them. I've got a triangle of 6 bearings mostly cut for doing a pavé cluster, just needs a little tweaking; we spent some time going over the various options for grain layout & cutting for this style of thing. We covered a method of doing a Roman setting with gravers that I haven't seen described anywhere else - haven't done it, but I'll definitely have a crack at it.

As for these pictures... I've just ordered a macro lens, which should be with me in about a week; I shall have a play with that to sort them when it arrives!

[Dennis]

You've got our tongues hanging out for pics. Mine's too dry to lick a stamp.
Dennis.

[ps_bond]

I know, I'm sorry - I've not been satisfied with the focus on the microscope and my usual lens won't focus close enough to pick out any detail.

[ps_bond]

At last!

In order:

Exercise 1: 4 individual stones set in copper:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5873483842_3911118a8b.jpg

Exercise 1 again, but in gilding metal:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5160/5873474774_03b8b779c8.jpg

Exercise 2: 5 stones in a row:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5078/5872908459_d52f289c8e.jpg

Exercise 3: Channel setting:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6007/5872942793_4891d75efa.jpg

It has to be said, the channel setting ended up as a pigs ear - I overcut the end at the LHS, didn't secure the last 2 stones enough so had to reopen the setting to get them back in again, chipped the centre stone (only noticed that in the photo!) and couldn't get the last 2 to sit tight up against their neighbours. So I'll be redoing that one - I know what went wrong, so shan't make the same mistakes again.

[ps_bond]

Ah, the good old 4 photo limit...

A preferable view of the channel setting, and the start of a cluster - only the corner stones have grains raised so far.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3033/5872934373_915026ee1b.jpg

If anyone desperately wants to see the high res versions, they're all at http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/sets/72157627052007710/ - but do remember that these stones are 4mm across max!

(and yes, I have a new lens :D )

[Pauline]

Thanks for showing the pics of your work - I love the cluster in your latest pic!

[Dennis]

Well, your our pavé exprt now, Peter. What happens if you slip and cut off a grain like I would?

Dennis.

[ps_bond]

In the valley of the blind, Dennis... :)

If I cut off a grain, it'll (hopefully) be when I'm engraving the excess from around the stone, prior to bright cutting - so there should be enough metal in the surround for me to lift 2 curls from the wall and form them up as a grain, albeit a more delicate one than I'd started with. I *think* there's one of those on the 5-in-a-row setting, I can't remember.

[Tabby66]

Really glad you got your new macro lens Peter and I could look at what you've been describing! My tongue was, like Dennis', dry as a bone ;-) I love the effect of pave settings.....one day......in my very distant dreams :-D

[ps_bond]

This week - I'm redoing the channel setting; the channel is cut to size, I just need to cut the bearing shelf now. I've got the triangle cluster *mostly* done - the middle grains are annoying me, so I decided to take a break from it, then I'll come back to it and finish it properly. The outside edges look quite nice though. Did a graver-cut Roman setting which was interesting - I can see some applications for that. Also did a flush setting, but hand cut the bearing which is different to how I've done it in the past.

Pictures once I've sorted that cluster out :D

[ps_bond]

Late again...

Last week's session was mostly discussion - pros & cons of the various settings, caveats, dealing with problem stones, that sort of thing.
There was also a detailed description of a cut-away setting, which I'll have to try soon. In effect, it looks like pavé for most of the setting, but the outside edge is cut away to look like claws and expose the girdle of the stone.

Meanwhile, here's a few grab shots; focus is iffy on one or two - more haste, less speed.

A new channel setting - I've pumice wheeled it to cut some of the tarnish, but I'm leaving the setting marks alone; it's done what I wanted. 3.5mm square stones, IIRC.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6138/5933114902_85e7482cb7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/5933114902/)

An engraved gypsy setting - no burnisher for this one, just gravers. To the right of it is a flush setting that got caught with a coarser abrasive wheel, hence the clouding on top of the table... 3.75mm stones.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6121/5933112022_9a4d1d81a1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/5933112022/)

The pavé triangle cluster. 3mm stones.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6141/5933122084_e854199b06.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/5933122084/)

A new round cluster started - most of the grains are raised, just starting to cut away the excess metal. 2.5mm stones.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6022/5933117774_2792691970.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/5933117774/)

[Dennis]

They're looking better and better Peter, but that is one amazing course. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

It's something of a step beyond the other stone setting courses I've seen! I'm tempted to finish that channel setting properly now - seeing these magnified like that is an inducement to do it right :)

Only 2 weeks left.

[ps_bond]

Right - I missed last week, sorry; I'd been working on the round cluster, but haven't quite finished it (got hit with a rush job for some belt buckles); last night was the last session, more's the pity. As a final piece, I'd decided I wanted to either do a basket-backed or coronet cluster, or a half-eternity ring. Since I didn't have time to make up the clusters, I fell back on the last option - only to be told that I should do the full ring instead... Slave driver :) The ring is paid out for all the stones - 2mm pink sapphires - most of the holes are drilled and the seats cut. I'll spend the next week or two sorting it out; I'll be cutting away most of the metal under the microscope before seating the stones; I'll also be sawing out the azures behind the seats, although I'll stick to squares rather than anything fancier.

I've got to say that Tom's course has been a fantastic experience - now I need to practice. It's so far ahead of the usual syllabi it isn't true. One thing that struck me was that while the tool outlay is moderate for those who haven't already accumulated them, the portability and the lack of dependence upon studio tools means that the practice/homework between sessions requires not much more than a bench peg and some good light (although a pendant motor is handy) - so you can split the time between learning & reinforcing what's been taught more effectively than might be the case with a full-time short course.

[ps_bond]

For anyone noticing I've been quiet on this lately - the ring has all the holes drilled, bearings cut, the back holes are all sawn square (and that's the first time I've had a bruised sternum from my saw), the settings have been pre-cut to both form the beads and remove as much excess metal as possible; last night I set about 12 of the stones (although the beads need forming now - I'll wait until the rest are in before that).

There's not much of the original metal left now!

[ps_bond]

At last...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/6093498487_a7fd633323.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/88787044@N00/6093498487/)

Not perfect, but nothing ever is!

Photo critique welcome too - this was messing with the 105mm macro; the DOF at f32 was a lot less than I'd expected.

[Dennis]

Very impressive Peter.

[ps_bond]

Thank you Dennis - I've had a lot of fun doing this and learned loads into the bargain. Now I need to use the techniques in pieces for sale rather than pootling around with practice pieces.