bead setting the stone in place

**donec** · 05-10-2010, 04:03 PM

Can bead setting to hold a stone in place be used with silver clay? I am concerned the finished product may not be mailable enough as I have read silver clay can not be stretched like sterling silver due to silver clay not being mailable enough.

**Wendy Moriarty** · 06-10-2010, 08:09 PM

not sure what a bead setting is, but you can use fine silver wire with silver clay, and ready made stone basket settings. also the fired clay can be treated the same as siler, eg bashed and shaped. Hope this helps
Wendy

**Joe** · 06-10-2010, 08:22 PM

I'm guessing you mean grain setting, where a small piece of metal is raised up and pushed over the gem, usually rubbed over with a graining tool to form a tiny metal bead?

Ooo, as usual, it depends...

If you've fully fired your PMC it will be very much like solid silver. Even if you've torch fired it, the surface will probably solid deep enough to raise a grain... if it isn't it will not go well!

**mizgeorge** · 06-10-2010, 09:18 PM

I'm no expert with metal clays, but I wouldn't try this with fine silver (too soft without being flexible enough), so I'm not sure I'd try it with clay either. I believe there are lots of ways of creating a stone setting with metal clays though, including firing it in place if the gemstone is suitable for this.

**donec** · 07-10-2010, 05:19 AM

Originally Posted by mizgeorge

I'm no expert with metal clays, but I wouldn't try this with fine silver (too soft without being flexible enough), so I'm not sure I'd try it with clay either. I believe there are lots of ways of creating a stone setting with metal clays though, including firing it in place if the gemstone is suitable for this.

Thanks for the replies.
I had not thought about the strength of the fine silver. As for firing it with the stone in place I have a fare amount of opal left over from when I did more work and will probably be working with it and it could not stand the heat.