#sponsored This mini tutorial on making tiny oval cabochon settings is sponsored by
@turquoise_moose and you can purchase these gorgeous, calibrated cabochons from them. You can buy one get one 50% off with code MSS (visit turquoisemoose.com) through 11/30. To do this technique you need 1mm square silver wire and forming pliers! The benefit of using this thicker wire is a gorgeous, thick bezel that is very forgiving. You can file and polish it. When I use super thin wire it’s more likely I will have a visible solder seam so I prefer this. To form the bezel I just used my pliers to bend a little and then check against the stone, bend a little and check. I have been practicing this technique for a few months now and you get better and better at it. Once I have a shape that is almost perfect I solder with hard solder. I can always tweak it a little after it has been soldered, giving it tiny squeezes with my round pliers. Once the stone is sitting is there really beautifully I can solder the bezel onto a back, you can get more creative here but I just made a simple earring. Once my piece is cleaned up I can file a chamfer, that is a 45 degree angle. This is an important step when you are using thick bezel wire as it reduces the amount of metal you will push over the stone. It also looks really nice :) To set a thicker bezel you need to hammer set. You can use a hammer hand piece on your flex shaft, I am using a steel nail I shaped and polished and a Fretz chasing hammer (HMR-20). I secured my work in my
@grstools multi purpose vice with Thermoloc. My best advice with the forming of the bezel and the setting is to practice a ton and be patient. The first few times I did this my pieces were a bit wonky or I’d slip and hit a stone but practicing pays off. If you can form a little bezel like this there is no stopping you! You can apply the same techniques to any cabochon. Push yourself to try setting these tiny stones, you got this! 💪 Thanks to our sponsor
@turquoise_moose their support allowed me to shoot these videos to share with you all! If you have other bezel techniques you’d like a tutorial on, comment below! #BezelTutorial #StoneSettingTutorial
