-
Ooo it probably was that you know Dennis, I'm pretty sure I did overheat the first one, and that's the broken one. I never quench tho at least, I sit poking things impatiently until they no longer burn my fingers!
Thanks Dennis I'll have to watch that.
Faith :)
-
Sounds more like metal fatigue caused the breakage. When you were setting the stone did the wire get twisted?
-
Hi Faith,
Unless you have bent the "bezel" inwards, you can try drilling a small hole again in the back - with a lot of care not to touch the stone - and using a wood stick try to push your stone out.
On the other hand, is a good practice to always test soldering strength by twisting wires & clasps. Or simply polishing everything in a tumbler. If it survives, then it is well soldered.
Good luck.
-
Hi Wendy and thankyou, the whole thing was embedded in thermoloc to set, which I figured would support and protect it all, but now you say that of course the dome was round and so could have twisted under the pressure of setting, while the little loop was stuck. Mental note not to do that again!
And thanks Joyerico, the stone is well and truly set now, so I'll need to use Dennis's method to open the "bezel" again before I can poke it back out.
Ta again :)
Faith
-
2 Attachment(s)
Hi all,
By way of update I'm finally finished!!!
I ended up having to make a few saw cuts to extract the stone, and made two completely new settings, which seems to have taken forever as I've had really limited time for my jewellery lately, but finally have my finished domeset earrings here:
Attachment 10441Attachment 10442
This time I was especially careful to put no pressure on the wires while setting also.
Thanks again for everyone's help and advice on this these and any feedback on the finished little guys is most welcome :)
Hope everyone's well :)
Thanks,
Faith
-
Beautifully set and I particularly like the round shape of the ear wires.
Can I see a little excess solder at the top? Its probably just the wires reflected. Dennis.
-
I think those are just delicious - in fact they're the first I've seen for a long time that make me really sad I can't wear earrings any more.
Well done for persevering - the end result was more than worth it!
(and I think it's a reflection on the top - very nice pictures btw - especially the second one)
-
Awww thank you both for those lovely comments Dennis and George :)
It took me a while to get the wire shape pleasing, and both the same lol, and practice has definitely improved my bezel setting, so thank you for all the tips along the way Dennis :)
Just checked too and there's no stray solder *phew* There shouldn't have been anyway as all the soldering was done well inside the domes, so think your right and it's just a reflection :)
Aw how come you can't wear earrings any more George? I feel bad now I made earrings that made you sad, but glad you like them so much thank you :) Thanks about the photos too, they were taken on my dinky SLR and cos it wasn't sunny enough I used my iPhone LED torch to light up the stones for the second pic.
Faith
-
Those look great Faith, super well done!
-
Totally worth the learning curve. Brilliant result