How to Make Bezeled Jewelry in Sterling Silver
Bezels, or stone settings, are a fairly common part of making jewelry, and all beginners must sometime learn how to perform the involved techniques. The simplest type of bezel for a beginner to start with is a cabochon bezel, designed for setting flat-backed cabochon gems and stones. To make your own cabochon bezel in sterling silver, read the following instructions.
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Things You'll Need
- Cabochon gem or stone to be bezeled
- Sterling silver sheet metal
- Silver bezel wire
- Clippers
- Jeweler's saw and blades
- Jewelry files and sandpaper
- Soft silver solder
- Flux
- Small paintbrush
- Small blowtorch
- Protected soldering area
- Pickle pot
- Tongs and clamps
- Polishing cloth
Instructions
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1
Determine what type of jewelry you are putting a bezel in. You can add bezels to almost any type of jewelry, such as rings, bracelets and even pendant necklaces. Also determine what cabochon gem or stone you are putting into a bezel setting, and measure the circumference. On a sheet of paper, draw your jewelry design, including the bezel, in scale so that you have a better idea of what you want it to look like. Remember that a cabochon bezel has a flat back, so you need a flat surface in your jewelry design to affix the bezel to.
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2
Place your cabochon on top of a sheet of sterling silver metal, and trace around it with a pencil. Remove the cabochon and cut the shape from the sheet metal using a jeweler's saw. Leave the edges rough for now. Cut a piece of silver bezel wire in the length of your cabochon circumference, or cut a rectangle in this length from your sheet of sterling silver.
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3
Fit the bezel wire around your cabochon so that the ends meet perfectly, and trim away any excess. If using the sheet metal, curve the rectangle into a circular shape using a ring mandrel and mallet. Remove the cabochon and paint the short edges of the bezel wire with flux. Place the bezel wire into one of the clamps in your fire-safe soldering area, with the ends fitted closely together. Drop a tiny piece of soft solder on this "seam" and fire up the torch. Using a very small flame, melt the solder, being careful not to melt the soft bezel wire. Remove the torch when the solder melts into the seam, along the flux.
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4
Using the tongs, remove the bezel wire loop from the clamp and place it into the pickle pot to cool. Remove the bezel wire from the pickle pot after about a minute and dry it off, then sand the soldered seam flat. Test the fit of the bezel wire on your cabochon. If it does not fit, you need to make another loop.
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5
Remove the cabochon from the bezel wire. In your soldering area, atop a fire brick or other fireproof surface, place your circular sheet metal piece flat. Paint the bottom edge of the bezel wire with flux, and place that down on the sheet metal. Add a few tiny pieces of soft solder around the inside edge, and melt them with the torch. Then place the whole piece into the pickle pot. Remove the bezel setting from the pickle pot, and sand the inside edge free of excess solder. Then file and sand the outside edge so that the sheet metal and bezel wire make a clean edge. Test the fit of the cabochon again.
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6
Solder the cabochon bezel to your piece of jewelry, making sure that it rests flat against a surface or that it is connected to a loop, as in a necklace. Polish the jewelry, then place the cabochon into its bezel setting.
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Tips & Warnings
You can also forego the bottom portion of the bezel if you are putting your cabochon directly onto a flat piece of jewelry. Instead, solder the bezel wire to the flat area.
Never touch hot metal with your bare hands.
