I’ve checked the archives and can’t find anything on this.
How does one create a bezel that allows “top and bottom” of an
object to be exposed?
I’ve seen this most commonly with “beach glass” or antique buttons.
The silver appears to be uniformly curved from top to bottom and
wraps around the object. Will fine silver bezel wire do this? Or must
the “partial round” be formed into the bezel wire before soldering
the ends?
I asked the same question about two months ago. I got alot of
different responses but this is what I found works best… Make a
bezel out of bezel wire a little wider than usual since you are
going to wrap it around on both top and bottom. Make it as snug as
possible. AFter it is soldered closed, take a pair of pliers, find
which shape works best for you, I used one with a softly tapered
point, and bend under a little bit, all around the bezel, enough to
hold the stone in place. Then set the stone in that seat like you
would regularly and then flip it over and press down more precisely
on the back side. Good luck. Someone called it a “wrap” bezel which
describes it pretty well.
use fine silver bezel wire, it can really stretch and
recover[compress], nicely. i wrapped some edith heath ceramic buttons
for ear rings and got the bezel to capture the curves on both sides,
quite nicely. i did have to make a jig, of sorts, to help hold things
whilst pushing the bezel. you could also use wire and make prongs to
hold the front and back of objects. hth richard on the soon to be
oily gulf coast
I use the same process as Margery - bezel strip. I use 1/4" 28g fine
silver strip and use my pitch pot to set the stone in the soldered
setting. Sometimes I use a narrower strip, but I would rather file
the height down a bit than fiddle with a narrow strip in this
process. Photographing my work is taking forever so I don’t have any
pics to show. When I resupply my bezel strip stash, I will probably
use sterling instead of fine silver, and get the 24g. One could
always cut strips from any gauge, though huh?. The 28g is sturdy
enough for roller printing.
I have made them several ways but the one I like best is:
Make a snug fitting bezel wide enough to cover both stones. Heat a
glob of Jett Set thermoplastic and mount it in your bench vise. Fit
the bezel over the stone and press it into the plastic half it’s
width.
After the plastic has set, form the bezel over the stone, then
remove it, flip iit over and insert and set the second stone.
I have also done it for items of different sizes by making a bezel
cup for the larger and soldering the smaller bezel on the reverse
side