I have no idea........

[Lynn.D]

What most of you are talking about. Doesn't stop me from spending hours reading it though! All part of the addiction I guess.

Quite excited today though as the secretary at work has started fusing dichroic glass and displayed her first attempts as soon as I arrived. Although I only use semi precious stones it looked so pretty I felt I needed to have a go at enhancing it.

I skived off as soon as I could and rang cooksons to add to the order I had already placed at 6.30 this morning so I could make a bezel setting to accommodate the least favourite piece for practise.

I've only made two before and they came out not too bad. I want to convince her the only way to go is to set them in silver. I will probably spend hours mucking around, getting frustrated and reaching for a bottle of wine but the challenge is what I'm up for!

If it works out I'll post a picture, if it doesn't I'll find another challenge!

[Keia]

Sounds good, absolutely adore dichroic glass. I saw some that someone made they looked like photos from nasa - deep purples and weird bluey grey swirls, really beautiful. Really hope you do post some photos =D

[LydiaNiz]

I have a lady who makes me dichroic glass to order, I seem to get a lot of requests for cufflinks using it - can be absolutely amazing looking, and simple silver settings can really show off the depth of colours - good luck!

[Lynn.D]

It all went horribly wrong! I eventually got a good join with the bezel wire but then tried to solder it to a piece of sheet and realised I should have cut that smaller as the sheet took up too much of the heat so the solder didn't melt well. The bezel solder moved because of this and wasn't level on the sheet so had to abandon the whole thing.

My biggest problem is getting good joins. I'm missing something in this department, think I might have to do a course!

[Keia]

It happens to us all, even the ones with the training & degrees. Don't despair, keep at it. Can you try to re heat it & quickly pick of the bezel while the solder is wet, file everything back down & have another shot or have parts of it melted? If it's just a matter of soldering not working out it should be salvageable. It's all in the practise =D p.s Binding wire is your friend to stop things shifting out of place, but don't let the wire come in contact with your pickle as it can cause copper flashing

[Lynn.D]

I really messed up the bezel wire and the sheet, it was like nothing I'd seen before! Spookily I had some binding wire delivered from cooksons today which I haven't tried before so I've asked her to bring a smaller piece of glass tomorrow as I don't want to waste anyone more bezel wire so will try again this weekend.

Thanks for the advice.

[Gemsetterchris]

Good point. Yes you need to follow the contour if needed.

[LydiaNiz]

I suspect you may need to take away some of the bezels at the corner, and that the corners are rounded - I only have a rubbish picture of some cufflinks from 3 years ago - but this kind of shape maybe? - the corners on these were filed away gently to avoid excess metal crimping at the corners.

[Lynn.D]

I suspect you may need to take away some of the bezels at the corner, and that the corners are rounded - I only have a rubbish picture of some cufflinks from 3 years ago - but this kind of shape maybe? - the corners on these were filed away gently to avoid excess metal crimping at the corners.

They look amazing Lydia. I've cut the bezel off and scrapped it now but this is the stone I'm struggling with. I used 5mm wide fine silver.

[Dennis]

No need to struggle. Steady the stone by fixing it down with blue tack. Anneal the strip and work it round to fit. It also helps if the seam of the bezel is along one side and not at a corner.

Just reduce the height of the bezel until you only have about 1.00 mm to push down all round. This might be lower at the corners.

Solder it onto a back plate and there you are ready to set it.

If the back of the glass is rounded too, it will sit better if you can cut a largish hole in the back plate, leaving just an internal ledge. Dennis.