HOW TO: make and set a bezel with corners

hello hello everyone Emily here of Emmie bean jewelry and it's time finally for my second video I had no idea that my small bezel making video was going to just have such a big response and I appreciate that thank you and so finally finally two years later I have come up with a list of a few more videos I can try it has been a bit of a challenge to come up with time with my jewelry making schedule my studio doing shows and my family to make a few more videos I've finally put it into my schedule so hopefully I can have some regular content coming today we are going to tackle setting a stone with corners into a bezel not just making the bezel but setting it properly as well so you don't get those folded or buckled corners that seem to be the bane of our existence as jewelers everyone loves these angular stones but they can be a pain in the butt to set there is a proper way to do it it goes against all instincts but as long as you follow the method I promise you it will work so what you're going to need to start out and I'm gonna have this down at the bottom too for your list of materials you can follow along you are going to need a gemstone with corners doesn't matter what kind of corners I happen to pick a square boulder opal but if you have something that's triangular that would work some the fine silver bezel water that meets the height requirement for your gemstone and this one is actually quarter inch because this is a really tall blue opal we are going to need a sharpie or a permanent marker of choice a real big thing is a pair of pliers that have flat edges and no serrations in there they are just flat these are my good old trusty ones I've had these for years I do have no idea where I got them from but if something happened to them I would probably cry and for me I cut my bezel wire with these scissors it's just a pair of cheap scissors I'm pretty sure I pick them up at Harbor Freight a good many years ago but all I use them for is cutting bezel wire so here we go we're going to start out first thing I do is I use my fingers and just flatten it out a bit because it is on a roll it can get a little bended so what we're gonna do here and I apologize for the camera shaking I'm wearing it on some contraption around my neck just to try to get it at an angle so that you're seeing it the way I see it so we are going to line up pliers and Bend just like that did I over bend yeah yeah I did it's okay we're going to do that as our starting point because remember you never ever ever have your bezel start and end at a corner never what that'll do it will make it a very very sharp corner it will also be next to impossible to bend over and it'll just stand out like a sore thumb so pick a corner line it up get it to that shape are we good yeah we're good here's the trick go in with your pliers against your gemstone onto your bezel wire just cozy it right up there pick it up make sure it's lined up use your fingers and fold and we do it again we repeat this all the way around wherever you have a corner cozy it up pick it up and fold if for some reason it doesn't pick up or the wire slips out that's fine just go back in there line it up do it again cozy it up pick it up straighten out if you need to and fold that's it you just created a bezel with corners so what we're going to do then is go in and mark it with our permanent marker we are going to cut it and I just cut that at a strange angle trying to look for my viewfinder here instead of in person all right now here's where you do the back and forth up and down trying to get it lined up then you go in with your pliers again you want to flatten that because you want to get that lined up as much as possible then run your finger over it it's your finger catching on any of that bezel that's sticking up no all right you're good to go next we are going to solder so I have some hard solder here take out a few these tiny tiny bits and these solder cups holders are old film canisters for those of you that remember cameras that took actual film back in college I've had these ever since after taking a few photography classes and it's one of those just random materials that my parents always saved whenever we went through another roll of film they got the film developed but you see I've got canister because you never know what you need to do it for and wouldn't you know it's fantastic for holding solder all right if solder underneath remember put solder underneath and the heat will make it flow up that seam have my torch which has not been behaving lately and this is just butane or water mist smaller pieces I just bust out my butane torch because it just makes it easier [Laughter] alright sat sink solder flowed up there we go I grab my copper tongs the soap you're going to punch this and pickle it and then they should be back for the next step okay now time to check on that bezel see it oh well it's pickle I'm gonna neutralize and then dry it off okay so now it is time to fit that stone back in there and unless you have a very irregular shape sometimes it can be of a trick to see which side goes where for that bezel all right there we go we've got a really good snug fit there now I remember which way the bezel is for up and down because you can see a little like solder blob down there that's how you know it started at the bottom and you drew that solder up now the next question is which way do I want to set this stone for it to be finished when I have it going this direction there's a little bit of red flash up there so I am going to set it that way what I'm going to do next is I am going to take the stone out and file the bottom of my bezel to do this I have with my drawer here and I have my 500 grit sandpaper even not yet you're not gonna have any gaps between the bezel and the back plate there's nothing more frustrating when you have it perfectly and it decides that that is not the case all right now you don't know if you can see that is nice and even all the way around alright next is we are going to prepare our backplate I'm gonna do with this is I'm going to use some sterling silver what I like to do is I place my piece on my big sheet and I like to make sure I'm a nice border all the way around I'm going to market I tend to do dots instead of a straight line because I cannot draw a straight line to save my life and then we are going to cut this with my saw this salt I've been using for the last year year and a half now I may be pushing two years is just one from green lion I absolutely adore it because it has the larger grip it's a lot easier in my hands this is no way sponsored by green lion I just really really really love this the next step i like to do is I have a maker stamp and I am going to put my stamp on the back of this it needs to be done before soldering of edible bezel okay and then just to make sure it's perfectly flat I use urethane hammer and I take that piece of silver I use the side of my sledgehammer and I just use the urethane hammer and just make sure it's flat by just tapping on it because sometimes doing my maker stamp because I have to hit it three times and make sure people impresses it can make the silver buckle ever so slightly all right next step is we are going to solder so I need to make sure I have my bezel lined up exactly where I need it to be positioned and a big trick I like to share is your solder scene make sure that's always away from your flame if at all possible because if that is fully exposed to the flame there's a chance it could reopen and that's just you don't want to have to deal with that you soldered it once let's leave it's a turd all right here I've got my medium solder because we've got a good amount of room in here to that it needs to get soldered down my put two large pieces in there and then I'm going to flux this we arrange it to make sure everything sits where it's supposed to then we are going to solder when soldering remember circles go ahead doing circles you don't want to stay in one spot for too long the silver could melt and because you're working with silver you need to make sure that fits up to temperature for the entire piece in order for the solder to flow once you see that solder melt it flows via capillary action so as soon as it starts running along that bottom seam it'll all start going and solder goes where the heat is they could continue going around in circles you know the solder is going to be flowed all the way around one two a visible proof that solder has flowed completely turn off your torch and wait about 10 seconds or so before you quench that piece quenching it way too fast could cause the silver to crack and we don't want that all right after that pickles will go on to the next step okay so the piece is out of the pickle here it is now I'm gonna use my tin snips and snip off majority of the extra silver file the edges and then we are going to set this stone is as polished yet no not in the slightest that's okay if anything I might throw a bail on here real quick before I set the stone just so that way it can be a finished piece instead of having to take it out and do it all over again so here we go Cantus tips made short work cleaning up those edges now to five I'm gonna be doing this part off camera because I know not everyone can withstand those filing noises so I'll be back once is this though real quick scene change Here I am going to quick solder on that bail I already have it all set up with my third hand and a piece of solder now to flux it and this is easy solder that I'm using simply is hard on the bezel and medium to do the bezels to the backplate November solder goes for the heated alright I'm going to quench my third hand then I'm gonna take this quench it and pickle its next step I am going to file down the edges because that is a very loud process I am going to do that off camera and then I will be back and we are going to get into setting the stone right so I have this all filed and pre polished typically I tumble my pieces before I set the stones but for the sake of time I'm not going to do that today so right now you need to gather your gemstone you need to gather all of your bezel pushing tools your scraper if you use one I like to and we are gonna work on getting this done so first thing I'm gonna do is because of this being handled some of the bezel has kind of gotten pushed in so what I do is I like to lay it down on my push bench pin and flatten those edges out there we go now next what I'm going to do is I am gonna put the stone next to the bezel like this to see where's it gonna sit is it gonna be too high like the bezel itself is going to be too tall is it gonna be too short is it going to be just right I think it could stand it be filed a little bit so I'm actually just gonna stand it with some 500 grit paper filing itself can take the bezel down too far too fast if you stand it with some 500 grit paper you have a little bit more control over how much it is getting off of there so I'm gonna use my little bench brush and just sweep the little filings off of there one trick that I know a lot of people use is they take some dental floss and this is the one like it's kept studio only and we're gonna use this to test the fit of well not just the fit of the gemstone we are going to do this in order to test the height of the bezel so we are going to push it in there now we can see it's a little high over not side a little lower on the side we need to do some more filings so let's pull on our dental floss and pop our gemstone out get some more filing done what to say standing by all right time to go back in with my brush and because now it's gonna be at a pretty good height I did not go back in with the dental floss and that's okay now it is a little high still over on the side not so much on this side that's okay we are going to tackle that with tools so I'm going to go in and file or say on this part down just where it needs to be and I'll be right back okay I went in by hand and did some filing on the sides that were a little bit taller than the rest so here is the big thing we are going to go in and set this now I know everyone's common instinct is to set it so you push toward the corners but that's not the way to do it here's what we're gonna do each corner you're gonna push directly in on that corner first which seems absolutely crazy all right but really really that's the way to do it the other one died on me whose very little warning so I'm gonna continue here alright so I'm gonna push each corner in directly on that corner and it seems completely backwards but really that's the way to do it next I want to turn my rocker to the side and push in the middle of each flat edge just the middle okay next step start at the corner any corner I'm gonna start at the corner push in and roll towards the middle again start at the corner directly underneath at the corner push in roll towards the middle of that edge okay flip it 180 if you still want to keep the north south east west mentality with four pushing in these bezels start at that corner push toward the middle again corner roll it to that middle corner roll it corner roll it and then the last one corner roll it corner roll it that's it and you can go back and redo if you want the always rumors start at that corner and go away from that corner not toward it you go toward that corner that's when you are going to get that bezel folding up on each other and it's going to buckle and have a fold and it just doesn't look nice next you're gonna take this thing push down that edge over top since this is a boulder opal that has it doesn't have much of a curve to the top of it even though it is a cabochon it is very very flat on the top so we do need to push that bezel over onto the top and I just make sure mine is nice and polished my bezel pusher I mean nice and polished so it will just glide over the top of that bezel edge and not Nick up my gemstone at all because when you Nick an opal you know it you hear that ghastly cracking noise and then you know that's it that stone is toast unless you can polish it out and unless you do epidural work it's tough to do all right that's it now for my own finishing I would go in and I would finish that up a bit more just make sure it's pushed down nice and even all the way around then go in with my silicon polishing wheels and probably follow up with my 3m bristle disks and then you'll have a finished piece well thank you for joining me today and I hope this helped you out with learning how to set bezels with corners and gemstones with corners give one a try start out with something like an agate or onyx or a quartz something sturdy that is also inexpensive for your first few that way it's not heartbreak if something happens to it and just give it a go okay please let me know if you have any questions down at the bottom I will answer them as just to my ability if you like this video awesome please give it a thumbs up if you'd like to see more content from me in the future if you have any suggestions for content from me in the future please let me know subscribe and hit that notification bell the next time I post a video you'll know about it thanks so much bye

Channel: Emmy Bean Jewelry

Views: 66,048

Keywords: jewelry, jeweler, bezel, bezel making, jewelry artist, cabochon, gemstone, boulder opal, how to make jewelry, gem setting, making jewelry, bezel set, student jeweler, how to make a bezel, emmy bean jewelry, aspiring metalsmith, silversmith, goldsmith, square gemstone, soldering, necklace making, silver jewelry, how to set a gemstone, jewelry designer, how to set an opal, jewelry help

Id: sQUw-yEearA

Length: 29min 33sec (1773 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018