Help needed with ring and thin gold wire snapping!!

[hjc1305]

Hi
I hope someone can offer some help. I made a ring for a customer, made from silver sheet with 0.8mm gold wire soldered on to it, a gold flower and a bezel with amber stone in it. However she contacted me last week after about 6 months to say the actual bezel had fallen off and was lost. I have no idea why all of a sudden it would fall off as it was soldered and had been in my tumbler etc? Anyway I received the ring back, went to solder on the new bezel cup and the gold wire around the ring snapped! Argh! The wore had left quite a deep indentation in the silver ring so I decided to pull it apart and remake! I was dreading making it as this was one of the most intricate pieces I had ever made. I went to remake today and decided to solder the wire on whilst the ring was flat, then annealed it several times whilst gently bending it into the cuff ring shape however the gold wire snapped again. I also noticed the gold flower had a small hole developing within the middle of it! Blooming disaster!!!! So I once again have ordered all the necessary materials to remake, although I'm feeling sick at the thought of it! Firstly should I be soldering the wire to the ring whilst its bent? Secondly does anyone know why the sheet gold has formed a hole in it and thirdly is it wrong just to give her a refund and run for the hills???! 😁 I'll attach a picture of the ring before it all went wrong!

L

[Dennis]

Dear hjc,

I'm sorry that you are having this trouble, but you should most definitely be able to make the ring in the flat and bend it afterwards, annealing on the way.

My guess is that your solder failure and disintegration of wires is due to unsuccessful use of paste solder and that it would not occur with pallions and Auflux. also I would prefer to use silver solder where you are joining gold to silver, but gold solder to join gold to gold.

As for paying off your customer, it might be an option if she agrees and you explain honestly that you are out of your comfort zone. Personally I would grit my teeth and get on with it. If you succeed as is likely, you will be a better jeweller for the experience. Dennis.

[hjc1305]

Dear hjc,

I'm sorry that you are having this trouble, but you should most definitely be able to make the ring in the flat and bend it afterwards, annealing on the way.

My guess is that your solder failure and disintegration of wires is due to unsuccessful use of paste solder and that it would not occur with pallions and Auflux. also I would prefer to use silver solder where you are joining gold to silver, but gold solder to join gold to gold.

As for paying off your customer, it might be an option if she agrees and you explain honestly that you are out of your comfort zone. Personally I would grit my teeth and get on with it. If you succeed as is likely, you will be a better jeweller for the experience. Dennis.

Thank you for your reply. I did use pallions of silver solder to solder the gold wire to the ring? So I don't think it could have been that which caused the fractures in the gold wire? A few people have suggested soldering with pallions but when the ring is in the shape so as not to stretch or over work the gold wire? The stupid thing is I've made one of these rings before but I've completely lost my confidence today! I shall persevere though!!

[Moon Willow]

Hi HJC

Jewellery can give you many highs and smack you in the face just when you're floating on cloud 9,

The groove in your silver ring where the gold wire sat means you overheated the ring and 9ct being more dense than the silver started to sink into the metal.

Not too sure what you mean when you say there's a hole appearing in the gold flower, but if it's the bead which was probably melted down then it could be an air hole coming to the surface.

As for the wire breaking without seeing the break I wouldn't hazard a guess, mmmmmmm yes I would, the gold after bending is work hardend and when reheating the silver will expand quicker than the gold thus cracking 9ct.

I hope some of the above helps, but don't throw in the towel, the money doesn't matter in the long run the experience you get from failures is invaluable.

Carlton

[enigma]

I just wanted to say I have absolutely no idea but I love your ring and its great to read the advice here- don't give up!

[Sammyjean]

Please don't give up! The ring looks great and I'd love to know how it works out!
Sam.

[LydiaNiz]

If I was doing a remake of this style I would:
Make the bezel, solder it using hard solder
Solder the flower base to bezel using easy solder (heat from below possibly depending on how thick the flower shape is and how confident you are)
Support the flat ring on wire mesh, use easy solder paste along the underside of the gold wire/beads and put it in place. Heat from below mostly, flicking up to from above now and then until there is a solid seam (no gaps) between wire and sheet.
Pickle it all, rinse it, bit of a clean then form it, finally using extra easy solder the flower bezel in place.
Good luck - it's horrible when your confidence takes a knock but you'll feel a million times better when you've bested it!