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There's a bit of discussion in the metal clay groups on Facebook about firing metal clay in microwave kilns. I think that similarly to using microwave kilns for glass fusing there's a bit of...

I make pendants like this quite a lot, I usually just melt some scrap on one of my blocks, allow it to cool, place it on a steel bench block and then hammer it flatter with a large hammer. If there...

Tumblers don't really work harden, it's just a few microns of surfce metal if they do. It looks to me as though your setting was just a touch too deep, so the walls are pushed over the stone a...

NuMonday gets very bad press from folks in the Facebook groups I'm in, seems to be the case that there's a lot of advertising around gaining sellers - who pay the fees - and little to no presence...

Sadly Etsy is no longer about handmade items, that changed a few years ago, and there are huge amounts of people pushing through cheap bought in stock. That said, there are some awesome creators who...

Try not to worry too much, the amount you're talking about is tiny and like you say, you're still standing. Thankfully no-one thought it looked like a delicious beverage and downed it.

Yes it should do. Be nice to take a look at it again in a few weeks once you've been wearing it.

I find the best way to work out what anything does, a build or a patina, is to wear it yourself for a few weeks. Then you'll know what happens.

Did you just build your own rolling mill?
Colour me impressed.

Absolutely gorgeous work, I think they're lovely

Thank you! Again, that's the look I was aiming for, even down to the nicking it from a museum feeling :D
I find I have to let ideas ferment a bit and then the muse sits on my shoulder and it...

It's a fair cop, in reality I have a stash of treasure that I pretend to have made.

Exactly the look I was going for!

It's been a while since I experimented, this is what I came up with. I bashed the silver on the concrete outside my house, added a thick jump ring as a bezel, some bronze granules and then flush set...

I use scrap silver a lot because I'm never going to amount enough to send it in for refining, and I love to make blobs and use them. For me, melting them on an ordinary soldering block does the job,...

Yes, you don't need a 0.5mm bezel, just 0.5mm from were the stone starts to curve. I have some very flat rose cut slices where the side of the stone is around 1mm or less, they can be set with a...

It's possible that you're hearing for too long, or maybe your scrap has a lot of solder in it and this is causing the pitting? For pieces that I'm going to hammer flat of around 3g I just use my...

I'd just take out the pins to be honest. I just use round steel shot, a mixture of 1, 2 and 3mm balls and putting is never an issue.
There's also a fair bit of evidence that tumbling doesn't work...

This is probably the book you're thinking of. It's about all aspects of polishing, not just jewellery, but does have a section about polishing silver jewellery....

This is considered to be the most comprehensive guide to setting stones in metal clay, lots to read but you should find the info you're after somewhere in there.
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Yes, it could be that your kiln is not running very efficiently. I've got a Prometheus Pro-1 that you set the run times for depending on what clay you're using and then the programmer stores those...

I know it doesn't seem like a lot but it's really all you need. There's a definite art to using high bezels and being able to work them down in a way that looks good without all of the crinkling and...

Yes, sorry about that, I couldn't fine a better graphic for some reason. But if you Google "bezel height" and use the image tab you'll find lots of examples of how to gauge the height of a bezel for...

That seems unusual for a kiln to have ramped up your electricity bill. Not sure where you are and I'm not familiar with your kiln but when I use my Paragon kiln for firing silver and bronze metal...

Ooh, another thing to add to my "must get one of those!" list Dennis.
I don't find there's too much splatter if I dip my piece in a dish of soapy water, just have to watch out for bits of brass...