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Victoria
30-04-2013, 11:29 AM
Hi all,
Is it possible to make a heart shaped bezel setting that tapers...without a forming block to give me the taper??
I've made a standard bezel (which has come out surprisingly neatly!) and am now puzzling over whether to create a small heart shaped seat for the inside, or just put a little jump ring inside for the stone to sit on. But I'm thinking that ideally it'd look nicest if the setting was tapered so the stone stayed put without a seat.
Cheers!
Victoria

Dennis
30-04-2013, 07:50 PM
Victoria,

Make the bezel in two halves but much taller than needed and also longer. Then cut the top ends at a slight angle and solder them. You will now have a tapering shape, taller in the middle than it should be.

Next temporarily insert the stone and pinch together the over-long bottom ends with tweezers. Lift out the stone with a cone of Blu-Tack and solder the pointy end. You should now have a cone shaped setting with uneven top and bottom edges, which can be filed or sanded level and the point of the heart shaped up.

You might find bought bezel strip too flimsy and like many of us use strip cut from sheet (0.4 fine silver is good). You might also like to experiment with stiff paper, or thin copper to see just how tall your strip must be, to allow you to file it level once tapered and to use as a template for the final bezel. Dennis.

Dennis
01-05-2013, 07:28 AM
Thinking about it, if you find the above method too weird, you can also just use curved strip:

You already know what length you need, so just make it a bit longer so you can pinch the pointy end at a slight angle for soldering. Also make it a little wider than the height of the stone for safety.

To make a suitable curved strip, mark the outer rim using a 20mm round object, such as a side plate. Cut and file to the line, and then scribe the inner rim to cut it.

You will still be left with some waste and some adjustment, but if you use annealed copper, you can finally flatten it out to use as a template for the real thing. Dennis.

Victoria
01-05-2013, 01:43 PM
Hi Dennis, thanks for this, you're a star! I will have a go and report back!

When you say to pinch the bottom of the setting together with tweezers, do you mean so it's completely closed, or so there is still an open back? the first method makes more sense to me as a first attempt, but I like the second method as I'll be left with a template to use again and again. I will try both!

General question - do you always use fine silver for stone settings? I've been using 0.4mm sterling...is this mad?!

Cheers
V

Dennis
01-05-2013, 02:59 PM
Hi Victoria,

In both cases you are aiming to make an open tapered frame. What I should have said is pinch the ends of the strips together to form the point of the heart, solder and trim off any surplus. Both methods aim at the same result.

As for which silver, professionals mostly use sterling, but as a rebellious amateur, I favour fine silver, which is much easier to form and rub over. It can be flimsy when first annealed, but quickly hardens in use. Looking back over, the years I can see no problem with this and it allows me sometimes to use very thick strip as a design statement. Dennis.

Victoria
01-05-2013, 03:46 PM
Oh I see! I'd got confused about which bit was being pinched together. I only started using sterling as it's cheaper to buy it as strip instead of fine silver!
This is going to take a few attempts I suspect so I'll report back my results when i can!
V