Semiprecious gemstone cabochons and bezel type settings made using silversmithing and silver solder techniques

This is my first attempt at making an intarsia !

A bit of a disaster..

It should have been more obvious to me while grinding down the flat edges of the Obsidian that it was not nearly good enough. As can be seen at the joints.

I knew the top edges were a bit chipped, but thought that by the time I took it down a bit that those would disappear. Maybe they would have if I had ground her down more.. It’s just that the dome is pretty low as it is, so will have to think about that next time.

Also will be sure to do a much better job on the inner part of the frame flat edges. No chips allowed next time !

Oh well……. First try, next one will be better !

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Is annealing really just a simple matter of heating the metal and letting it cool?

I think this is the first question that comes to mind for someone brand new to working silver and other metals for jewelry design. I know it was for myself.

One important benefit to annealing is that the process makes the silver easier to handle during the bending and shaping process.

Using a higher gas to oxygen ratio and not using the flux will result in very little oxidization with the higher acetylene ratio.

Annealing is the process of making smaller crystal structure in the metal. The larger the crystal in the metal the harder it is to bend and the more likely it is to crack or break. Since metal crystals grow in size based on their cooling conditions, the the size is controlled with the speed which you cool it.
Fast cooling produces small more uniform crystals, slow cooling produces larger more interlaced crystals. THus heating to red and then quickly quenching produces fine crystal structure. Heating metal up and then letting it air cool produces the more brittle material (larger crystals). Holding it at he crystallization point for a long time will grow much larger crystals. (See link below.)
You would normally never anneal a piece after it is complete as that makes it the most soft. You might anneal a part of something that will be forced to flex as that will make it less likely to break, but it’s still only a temporary fix.
Metals also do what is called work hardening. As you hammer, pend or compress the metal it will slowly make it more brittle. Hence you often hammer (as in forging) for a time, then anneal to return it to a softer more more pliable state, hammer again, anneal again, etc. etc.

Just heat the metal to cherry red ?

Metal is a crystalline structure, so when you heat it, the crystals expand, forcing gaps in between the microscopic crystal cells. When you polish, hammer, or even with age, metal crystals compact, making it hard. If you heat it to cherry red, you damage the structure. Yes, it will be soft, but over doing it will cause possible damage that will become evident while working the metal later on. I used to do this, and hammer blows would crack the soft metal or force air pockets into it.
The ink in a Sharpie marker dissipates at the correct temperature for sterling to anneal. I dip my metal into a mixture of alcohol and boric acid, light it, and wait for the flame to finish spreading the boric evenly over the piece. However you can use whatever flux you are familiar with; some just use a charcoal block without any flux. Really, it doesn’t matter since annealing, shouldn’t get close to firescale temps.
Then while the piece is warm and dry, scribble on it with a black Sharpie marker. Heat with a fluffy yellow flame till the marker dissipates and the black marks vanish, then quench in water or pickle. The quench is important to get the softest silver possible. I was told to do use the marker till I get used to watching for the flux to glisten and there to be a slight red glow that can only be seen in the dark. But, since I have great lighting in my studio, I just keep a Sharpie in the pocket of my apron. I guess the Sharpie is my crutch, but I have never over-annealed a piece since.
In reverse, if you have a project, and you want to harden the metal, as in a ring band or chain, you can place it in a kiln at 600 degrees for about an hour, and the crystalline formations will compact, the longer the harder.

From Ganoksin bulletin board

Sterling silver is at its softest when it is annealed at 650C (1202F) then immediately quenched, at this point it’s hardness is 56 Vickers and its tensile strength is 300 Nmm -2. If it is air cooled it will be only slightly harder at about 60 Vickers due to the difference in crystal structure.
Some people confuse air cooling with the age hardening process where sterling silver can be greatly hardened by heat treating. To do this you first heat the sterling to 750C (1382F) and hold it at this temp for 30 minutes then rapidly quench the item is then heated to 300C (572F) for 1 hour. this will result in a sterling piece that has a hardness of 110-120 Vickers and a tensile strength of 350 Nmm -2. The heat treatment can only be done on items that are NOT soldered as 750C will melt all silver solders if the item has been soldered prior to treatment and soldering after treatment will anneal the item and remove all the hardness gained.

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Tutorial by Art Jewelry Magazine

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Ten Good Reasons

1. Hard solder actually becomes easier and quicker to use than the “step” method. No hat trick, just controlling your torch, all my students can do that easily with in the first 30 minutes of learning to light a torch. This includes junior high age students. By using only hard solder there is no reason to ever have to “tie” your pieces together with “bailing wire”, oops, I mean “binding wire”. I have not used it in 25 years, and can not imagine a sitution that would require it. Hard solder will hold every thing in place while soldering. Saves time, more profit. In the same time it takes to try to tie something in place you can have it soldered.

2. Because hard solder polishes and ages just like sterling silver, you can use a lot of it to fill gaps, so there is no need to waste time getting every solder joint to fit just perfect. This insures that the customer gets a quality piece that takes less time to make, so more profit!

3. Hard solder polishes just like sterling, wears just like sterling, and tarnishes just like sterling, unlike easy and medium that begin to oxidize, tarnish faster than sterling. If you like unsightly darkened solder lines then use easy and medium.

4. Hard solder will not undercut as easy and medium solder will. I have had many repair jobs come in (when I did repairs for about 5 years) with solder lines on polished surfaces that were polish in to unsightly grooves. They tarnished, began to show, so they were polished and repolished to the point that the solder joints began to undercut, the solder eaten away. Then the sides of the sterling begin to get buffed and the result is a rounded groove where the joint is.

5. There are only three solder grades, some time in every piece you make, multi joints must be made with the same solder. All I am trying to teach is the more joints you make with hard solder the easier it is to do the piece. As soon as you begin to use medium or easy, you make it harder do make the next solder joint with out something bad happening. Doesn’t this just make sense. If you use hard solder for nearly or all solder joints, it is actually easier to control the temperature of the piece and not harder.

6. The real proof that using only hard solder is easier to use, all my students use the $10.00 propane torch to learn with. Then as they sell jewelry and make a good profit, they can pay for a better torch.

7. Hard solder does not pit as medium and easy do

8. Faster to use, which means to most fabricators, more profit! I teach my students they do not have time to dork around using three solders. In the time it takes to decide which one to use where, they can have it soldered and finished.

9. If a piece gets ran over by a car, the poor slob that must repair it, will not have fall completely apart as he, or she, heats it up. The piece will be easier to repair! That’s a good thing, for the person doing the repairs and the customer!

10. Hard solder makes stronger solder joints. If you want to know why joint the Silversmithing List and ask. The answer is simple and will makes sense to you.

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Something to blog about !

Have been burning, melting, and generally wasting a lot of silver trying to learn how to silversmith, the past few pendants have turned out a-ok though.

Thought might blog about and share a few of the most recent, successful, and favorite pendants.

This first one has a Nipomo and Marcisite gemstone cabochon. Unlike most of the pendants have done, this one is not backed. It is set with a step type bezel tape. This Nipomo has easily become one of my most favorite minerals.

Then this Picture Jasper pendant is backed, and then used a gallery type bezel tape.

This is a neat little Mexican Lace Agate pendant.

Then my first, from scratch ring.. The stone is Obsidian.

Another Mexican Lace Agate. This particular stone was cut pretty much from just below the crust of the rough. The result was a lot of agate with floating orb effect. Love this stuff !

Then this gemmy green Variscite pendant and bracelet set.

Finally this Rhodonite pendant. I did not take any pics through out the process. The backing was textured by running it through a rolling mill. Something that is on my wish list ! They are very expensive, but a member of my forum shared one that only costs 130.00. It is perfect for what I would be using it for. Now the possibility of having one is a bit more possible !

The bail is a step type bezel tape that I ground off the step part leaving just the pattern part. Then used gallery type wire to set the stone in. This turned out to be one of my favorite pieces so far !

Hope ya like em, and thanks for stopping in !

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Gosh…. Been a while since have added a blog post… Been a bit of a blogging slacker !

Thought might share a bit about a flat lap set up I picked up.. Purchased this with the intent of starting to try my luck with intarsia type cabbing. That and wanted to give some 8″ padded diamond mesh discs a wirl. Thought they might work as well if not better than mesh type belts. Plus they will last much longer.. Decided to start out with just the 1000, 2500, and 5000 mesh. I know folks do go much finer, but just to experiment.. , started with these to see how working up to just a 5000 worked out.

Also picked up both a 100 and 360 grit flat laps for making nice flat surfaces for intarsias.

The entire set up revolved around the choice of a magnetic base. All of these adhere to that..

10″ Magnetic base

Lap discs

Diamond mesh pads

Ok.. Then for the unit itself.. At first I mounted the motor upright.. Then changed it because the motor bearings were starting to sound wrong. Now that it is set up it became apparent that the lap unit itself needs a new bearing. Vibrates just a bit.

Have not tried any intarsias yet.. Will share any success with them later ! The padded mesh discs are working excellent. They are my first experience with diamond mesh. I am sure there must be some additional polishing improvements with the use of even more fine a mesh. Even upwards of a 50,000. Yet just with working up through the 5000, the end result is outstanding. A huge difference from just coming off a 600 grit silicon carbide paper. 600 grit silicon carbide really has always done a great job for the most part. But I have noticed a huge difference on certain minerals with the diamond, and improvement on the basic Jaspers and Agates in the final polishishing.

Thanks for stopping by !

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Just for fun want to show off this recent Mexican Crazy Lace Agate pendant. Sorta patting myself on the back just a little as it is my best silver solder project yet !

We decided to have a jewelry design contest for existing forum members.  Actually, it is still ongoing as of this blog entry..

Not being a very good artist as free hand drawing goes, it took almost an entire notebook to come up with the final sketch !

Wanted to see if I could actually design a piece using a similar set of stones as the many matching multi stone groups that I offer in my store. So started with that in mind.

One of the my favorite minerals that truly offer outstanding patterns that are ideal for this matching patterned multi stone groups is the Mexican Crazy Lace Agate.  It is easier to loose the flow of the pattern across the setting because the grains change rapidly as I grind and shape the top of the cab. The three three pieces across the top of this one kept the flow of the pattern pretty well.

Cut out and roughly shaped the backing for both pieces. Then cut and shaped the preforms to match the backing. Leaving plenty of room for soldering the bezel tape.

Shaped and finished up the cabs and soldered up the bezels to match.. It was a bit tricky for me to solder all three of the top settings to the same backing at once. I knew how important it was going to be to be able and heat this larger than normal piece evenly. As a result, it was the first time using the largest of torch tips I have. The much larger flame worked like a charm !

Pieced it all together..

Used both a tumbler as well as some 3M type discs for cleaning everything up.

Not having any experience with creating a nice beaded or maybe braded type neclace to go with it, not exactly sure how or if will create something to match this..

One thing I did learn too is that should have filed down the corners of the bezels just a bit so as when I pushed the tape up against the upper stones, there would not be the little gaps that are showing.  Next time …. !

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Recently received several slabs of what I believe to be a dendritic Moss opal.  Not entirely sure if it is an opal, opalized, or a opalite. I have read that opalite is an opalized volcanic ash than can occur with common opal and agate. It can be dendritic.

Opalite is very hard and can have a wet appearance upon breaking creating the illusion of an opal. I don’t really see this wet appearance in the darker, and not at all in the white.

Common opal fractures into tiny pieces/crumbs upon hitting, and opalite does not. This seems to better fit the description. When I break a slab with a hammer the white (softer) does not really break into very small pieces, where as the darker (harder) areas do.

Here is as best a couple of pics of the breaks on each. I am guessing the white areas to be about a 5 and the dark to be 6 or better.

It is not uncommon for common opal to be associated with moss and even plume agate. It can be found in white, tan, brown, green and peach.

A couple of cab pics.

The harder dark material took a great polish using tin oxide. The softer white colored material did not.  At the time of this writing have not yet tried another polish. Thinking some Holy Cow. Other than that, I am not familiar with a better polish. Prior to polishing these came off a worn 600 silicon carbide belt.

One thing I noticed while cutting preforms was that as I got towards the end of the cut, maybe an inch or sometimes even two, the slab would break. Not because of any fractures. It would consistently break in line with the direction of the remaining cut. I had to cut very slowly as I moved towards the end of the cuts. Can’t say I have ever experienced this with any other material before. Just sort of odd…

The material comes from Northwestern Missouri. I have read of an Ogallala Formation through that area. The Ogallala opal can be of these same colors as well as colorless, and cherty. Some of it is called moss opal because it contains a manganese oxide impurity that forms these dark, branching deposits that look like small mosses in the opal.

Comments ?

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Brand new Spokane area Social Networking Community for crafts, lapidary, jewelry, and all other related artists.

This community was started as a means to simply bring a variety of local niche artists from the Spokane area together in hopes of creating interesting and unique opportunities for all members.

Members are not limited to the few arts categories within the site title. All area artists are encouraged join up, and benefit from networking within the Community.

When we think of Artists, our minds can travel to any number of artistic niches. An attempt to categorize or list us all could be never ending.

My little artistic niche is lapidary. More specific, semiprecious gemstone cabochons that are used in custom jewelry design.

It is interesting that many arts related events, shows, festivals, fairs, etc., comfortably combine an endless mix of all imaginable artistic related niches.

Aside from selling our wares at these events, there are also golden networking opportunities between vendors and visitors. Any number of business building possibilities. Unique, often surprising, and totally unexpected opportunities can present themselves.

These events let us network face to face. Both with other vendors, and of course any local artists walking in to attend.

These “face to face” networking opportunities can turn out to be much more valuable in the long term than any single sale as a vendor at these events.

That is the goal of this community. Except, to provide an “online” social network that can potentially let these same interesting, unique, surprising, and totally unexpected opportunities unfold between area artists. Did not have any particular agenda in mind when I created this. Just sorta thought would let opportunities unfold spontaneously between members within the community.

Hey, maybe even make a friend or two while there ! If your in the Spokane or surrounding area communities, then come on over and join in !

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