Contrariwise ramblings

Continued from yesterday's post.

After taking the non-set ring from the tumbler, I still had to set the sea glass in it. It's important that the stone fits tightly, otherwise it may be loose in the setting or you may end up getting buckles in the bezel.

I have a bezel setting tool I got from Thunderbird supply. I use it to gently push segments of the bezel against the stone. Think of a clock. I usually start at 12 o'clock, push a small bit of the bezel against the stone, then I move to the opposite side at 6 o'clock and do the same thing. 9 o'clock is next, followed by 3 o'clock. Then I do the remaining bits until all of the bezel has been pushed against the stone.

The next thing I do is use a burnisher and rub it all over the bezel until the metal is smooth and it shines.

Usually I find bits that I'm unhappy with (like the seam where I soldered the two ends of the bezel wire together). And I rub them with progressively finer sandpaper until I've removed the seam. (And, yes, there have been times I've rubbed them a bit too much and then the stone peaks through. So frustrating!) This is followed by more burnishing.

So after quite a bit of work , this is finally what I ended up with:

I tend to like an asymmetrical look, and you can tell that I tried to set the stone that way with off-set accents of silver. And you can see that I put my silver scraps to use - I made the silver spheres from them.

The color of the sea glass is amazing! It's translucent and when you look down into the ring, it reminds me of the color of a crystal clear swimming pool.

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