Soldering Decoration to settings

I have three slightly differant questions to ask you lovely folks this morning.

The first concerns soldering gallery wire to the outside of a plain bezel wall. I'd like to solder the bearer into a hoop then put it over the bezel but where and how do I put my solder (to get it to flow around all those delicate lacy patterned bits).

Secondly to want to solder a bit of fancy gallery on the edge of a plain strip of bezel wire to make a taller bezel setting. How to do this well? Do a need to use binding wire perhaps or maybe pin the two pieces side by side?

Thirdly I'm putting some granules and decorative shapes on a backplate around a bezel. Is the best way to put a tiny piece of solder next to each piece then solder them all. I have read a technique where you can file solder over granules so the dust melts when heated.

Hope you can all give me your words of wisdom :">

Dear Sheena, your unusual questions all centre around how to solder something in the neatest possible way.
The only thing is to do the repeated and long winded experiments, maybe partly with copper until you find the best answer.
Your questions are no longer commonplace, and you need to decide how much time you are prepared to devote for an acceptable result or possible failure.

My immediate reaction would be to find gallery wires which can be used alone in place of bezel strip, or to contour and perforate bezel strip to imitate gallery wire. Dennis.

First question if I understand it correctly , I would sweat solder
Second question really really carefully, I think it would be a major PIA
Third question I have seen it done using the fusing method although I have never done it myself

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Originally Posted by china

First question if I understand it correctly , I would sweat solder
Second question really really carefully, I think it would be a major PIA
Third question I have seen it done using the fusing method although I have never done it myself

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I’m watching with interest. In the meantime, I had to Google the acronym for PIA. I’ve discovered my current making of a hinged lid for a pill box is being a right Pakistan International Airline!

I’ve never used it but always thought gallery wire was a stand alone for bezels and not soldered on top

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Originally Posted by CJ57

I’ve never used it but always thought gallery wire was a stand alone for bezels and not soldered on top

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That's my (limited) understanding too. The only time I used it, I fould it hard to resolve the pattern with the circumference of the cab I was setting. I rolled it as much as I could, then disguised the mismatch (or should that be mishap) with the bale.

On the matter of the PIA of my hinge, I now have a happy face :-)

There's an article on The Bench from 2019 about bezel wire, quite an interesting read . It says don't be afraid to layer your bezel and gallery wire, but doesn't tell you how. https://www.cooksongold.com/blog/jew...-your-settings
I have seen it in a few ring designs but it's not common. Maybe something the Americans do more? I'm being influenced by american artisan jewellers at the moment through being on Instagram. They generally use a lot more metal and are much bolder in their artisanal designs than the brits. The brits generally tend to prefer a clean finish high on perfect technique. (I bought a ring from one lady that looks like it's been run over by a truck :) she's highly skilled but that's the look). I think maybe the Americans sell through more craft based outlets than in the UK.
Dennis ah managed to ask something a bit differant for a change! Normally us beginners all ask the same things all the time, hee, hee.

China thankyou for reminding me about sweat soldering :) I keep forgetting that's an option.

With granules I've used paste solder before, it helps those little suckers stick where I want them. Depends how large your ganules are I suppose. I've seen people make a "seat" with a small ball burr and then place a tiny bit of solder in the divot and then the granule on top of that but they were quite large granules, and have seen another jeweller use spit to keep her filed solder dust and granules where she wants them.

These are some rings I made using solder paste to place the bronze granules where I wanted them. There's more than one way to skin a cat and all that.
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I didn’t see the bit about granules. I use paste as well but I take off the excess with a wooden cocktail stick otherwise you can get a sort of filigree of excess melted solder which doesn’t look good

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Originally Posted by misspond

With granules I've used paste solder before, it helps those little suckers stick where I want them. Depends how large your ganules are I suppose. I've seen people make a "seat" with a small ball burr and then place a tiny bit of solder in the divot and then the granule on top of that but they were quite large granules, and have seen another jeweller use spit to keep her filed solder dust and granules where she wants them.

These are some rings I made using solder paste to place the bronze granules where I wanted them. There's more than one way to skin a cat and all that.
Attachment 12760

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Misspond just had to mention your rings. They look like treasure rings, really super! Your gold looks really gold which i much prefer to the pale stuff. Paste is great for anything that need to be kept in place. The only annoying thing with it is it's easy to burn then it doesn't want to run!

Thank you, that's the look I was going for, ornate treasure that has been dug up. Paste solder is good if you get decent stuff, like a lot of soldering you've got to get in hot and fast. I just use butane torches so it's doable.
The gold plating was done with Spa plating gold solution, it does eventually wear off but this photo was taken after a full week of wearing these rings 24/7 with lots of hand washing every day/doing the washing up/hand sanitizer/hands into pockets and bags/every day life so it does hold up well.

This is the photo I meant to post, after the week of hard work they endured....
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As for the gallery wire questions - so are you wanting to a) make a bezel setting with ordinary bezel strip and then put gallery wire around that so that the inner stip acts as a step? If so, thats doable, not done it myself but I've seen others use that technique. You might sacrifice your first attempt but you'll just have to put that in your scrap pot.
And if you want to make a gallery wire higher... by soldering it to a strip of plain bezel wire? Like anything else that's down to filing and soldering skills. Binding wire might make that harder to achieve - maybe file everything so they're flush and then use sewing pins to butt them up together on a magnesia block to solder them together. Or just use a gallery wire that has a higher base? Bellore Rashbel have a much bigger selection of interesting gallery wires than anyone else. I needed a higher base gallery wire for something I wanted to do so bought a double pronged gallery wire (so the pretty prongs were north and south of the mid section) and snipped off the bottom prongs so that the base was thicker. I've kept the snipped off pieces to use another day.
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