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Easter project (more flush setting)
Hi all,
With five whole days off for easter i decided to learn flush setting. Having never done it before I devised a project that would involve a lot of flush setting to give myself practice, and (in case the first attempts were irretrievable) did two practice settings first in some scrap sheet before starting on these:
The large stones are green quartz checkerboard cabs (8mm), and each "halo" is comprised twelve 1.5mm zircons.
I have two main criticisms of my own, firstly I thought i could do the halo stone placement by eye - turns out not so much. The kindest thing you could say is it looks a bit rustic - and rustic wasn't what i was shooting for, i should have employed maths or a template or something?
Secondly i'm not that happy with the finish. The backs were fine before i soldered the wires, at which point the back face developed some tiny pits (from the heat I guess), and with the wires on, i no longer had a flat surface to emery, so did the best i could with radial disks. The fronts were fine until i slipped on a couple of the flush settings. I got the scratches out with tiny everflex flame tips, but overall neither side has the perfect flat mirror finish i was after, and i'm not sure what to do at this stage - surely compound would not be safe over the stones...
All in all though i'm fairly pleased with them for a project, and will wear them, they remind me of those little metal cotton reels for sewing machines!
Any feedback or tips for improvement would be gratefully received
Faith
Last edited by Faith; 01-05-2017 at 02:23 PM.
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They're pretty good Faith. No one but a jeweller would see anything wrong with them.
To space them evenly print a circle divider template, easily found on line. However, they don't always go up to twelve, but a clock face would guide you.
To set them all on the same circle, scribe feint marks with dividers, using the outer edge of the disk as a guide.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ci...LeXv8AfZzpvwAg
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Thanks Dennis ,
I even had a printed Visio drawing of the design, so I have no excuse! The circle divider templates look great tho, exactly what I needed, thanks
Faith
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You done well...getting a perfect layout & finish flush setting a flat surface isn't the easiest thing to do.
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I think you did a great job Faith, layout is certainly not easy to get perfect!
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Ta ever so much Chris and Sarah,
I was a bit disappointed with the layout to be honest so I'm consoled that it's a challenge for everyone, although I'll know to be a lot more diligent about it next time. In fairness this was probably the most complex piece I've tried to make tho, so practice will surely help too
Thanks again
Faith
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Actually I have one other question about these if I may... (I forgot to ask!)
In my original design I had the flush set stones closer to the bezel wall, and the whole silver "halo" section narrower, but it ocurred to me that if I did that I'd never get the burnisher into the 'back' of the flush settings - cos the bezel wall would be in the way. Is that a genuine constraint of a design like this or could I have gotten around it somehow without widening the halo as I did?
Many thanks in advance
Faith
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