Bezel Wall Issues...

Hi Guys,

I seem to have taken on a task that is a little too complicated for me as I am fairly new to the art of jewellery making. I have been trying to set three faceted pear shaped 8x5mm topaz in step bezel settings....after I finally finished the pendant (after hours and hours of trying) I had a few moments of "this is too hard" where the matching earrings were concerned. I finally got there with a step bezel (although I have also popped a back plate on the earrings as my bezel wire kept bending in all the wrong places and driving me NUTS!!). Possibly not the best look but I figured if the earrings match then it should be fine.

I have finally set the stones in the earrings however by bezel wall was too high and without thinking I burnished over. BAD PLAN. My bezel is now way too large and has covered too much of the stones. They also don't look like they match very well. Any thoughts on how to fix this would be fab or is it just a start all over again moment?

Any help would be much appreciated!! Thanks!!

This learning curve has happened to all of us, so you are by no means alone.
Ideally the stone is tried in several times, until the bezel height has been adjusted to be only about a third of a mm higher than the stone all round.
the edge is then bevelled to a knife edge before pushing home.

Remedial work never looks that good, but you would loose nothing by trying. If your stones are hard and reasonably resistant to scoring, then a flat scorper(graver) would cut away the unwanted excess, followed by filing with a flat needle file, that has had one side polished to make it safe for stones.

However if you dont have the scorper, you must also learn how to set one up. Dennis.

Ace thank you Dennis, I think I just got stroppy with the project by the point of setting the stones...will have to walk away for half an hour in future.

I don't have a scorper but will definitely invest in one and see what can be done. Luckily my partner seems to have an eye for very fine detail and also for tools so hopefully he may be able to help with this. No harm in giving it a go.

Thank you so much for the info!!!

Kirsty

I love stone setting but for much of the last 4 years it has been the bane of my life as thats how long trial and error has taken to get me to a stage where I find it relatively easy.....
What stones are you using Kirsty?