Day One of a Month of Bezels!

Before you say anything, I am fully aware that it is not quite February yet.  But now that I have a new challenge for the month, I can’t wait to get started.  For inspiration, I went to my Pinterest Board for Art Jewelry and looked for some ideas.    I found this great pic of a very primitive bezel setting that I thought would be a good way to start my month.

Dawn Wilson-Enoch ~ DesertTalismans

I then went to my bench and looked through the collection of stones until I found this old pottery shard I bought at the last Metal Clay convention in Kentucky.

This is the Shard setting on a mock-up of the final copper setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After choosing the stone, I made a mock-up and cut it out, than worked out the placement of the tabs for the bezels.

 

 

Next step – cut out the center, then transfer the image to a piece of copper for sawing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I did a little preliminary dappling on the copper so that the design on the shard seemed to continue onto the copper, then got out my jewelry saw and went to work.  After cutting everything out, I textured a copper washer and soldered it onto the piece.  This also took care of any questions I had about whether the copper would match the white shard, since the heat from soldering created a wonderful heat patina that made the copper look ancient too!  I dappled the edges a little to make them look less sawed, and here is the final result:

Oh yeah – I forgot to mention that I found a little copper bead in my “orphan” pile that was perfect for the bottom.

 

 

 

Here is a closer look.

 

 

 

I’ll be talking a lot more about bezels this month, and sharing some pics of some of my favorites from other artisans, so click on the link above and  to the right to subscribe!  

 

 

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