so I just got my orange flakes and am having trouble already! 
if itās not sticking to the wood, does that mean itās burned? I hardly
heated it up? Or maybe not enough heat? Is a dark brown color , is that
what it should be?
By the time I get it out of the stainless bowl, itās almost hardened. any
additional advise???
thanks in advance
[image: www.lorikaplanjewelry.com] http://www.lorikaplanjewelry.com
Iāve been using āOrange Flake Shellacā for only 55years!
The correct procedure is to raise the temperature of the wood to āvery hotā. You are attempting to get some flakes to stick.
You must then and only then place the BURNING
wooden dowel into the bag of Shellac. YES, this is clumsy way of starting, but the Shellac will only stick if the wood is darned hot, not warm!!!.;(
Once you get some flakes to stick, youāre on your way of succeeding.
I wonāt use any other method, trusting my previous experiences with other materials!..
Gerry! On my Teaching iPhone!
The colour of the flakes turn a dark-brown once used! Your wood must not be āwarmā, warm does not melt Shellac! I use a mini-torch, or an alcohol lamp just to get the flakes sticking.
BTW, you can burn the Shellac if the temperature is too hot on the stick. Then this looks like bubbles!.;(
Has this been good to you?
Gerry! On my Teaching iPhone!
Lori, did you see Gerry Lewyās responses? Heās a master gemsetter.
Another useful suggestion:
When you want to put your item onto the Shellac, your item āmustā be warm. This temperature warms the Shellac to make a permanent bonding!
Gerry! On my Teaching iPhone!
I am more confused. I have a flat piece of wood. You mean I need a dowel.
So I get the dowel burning and stuck it into the flakes. But my piece needs
to be flat. Is there a video of this out there anywhere??
Oish
Donāt be confused, I didnāt read the initial holding shape. Dowel or flat piece is not the problem, starting the āprocess is crucialā.
Gerry! On my Teaching iPhone!
Okay, no worries here. Letās just restart from the beginning.
You can use any type of mount youād like for your shellac. Iāve used dowels for small items, Iāve used curved surfaces for domed items, but mostly, I use flat sections of old 2x4 for 90% of it. All that matters is that the surface is a moderately close match to the surface youāre working on. Make sense so far? Just donāt get hung up on it as itās not all that terribly important.
Use a small metal bowl to contain the flakes and heat them up with a torch (just be careful not to burn them). Theyāll start to melt and form little balls that you can mix together with some tweezers or nail or any metal stick (you can use a wood stick too, but the shellac will be likely to stick to it much more so than the metal)
One youāve gotten a little blob of the melted flakes together, heat up the surface of the wood youāre planning on putting it on. It doesnāt have to be on fire, just nice and hot so the shellac melts a bit and sticks to the wood when it touches it.
Place your blob on the heated wood and, with the torch, now melt the rest of the blob onto/over the wood.
Once it is covering an adequate space for your piece, either keep it hot and runny or reheat it if it has cooled down and place your piece on it. You should now be able to ānestleā it into the shellac a bit and once it cools, it will be nice and stuck for you.
Thank you s much for that. I havenāt had a chance at the bench this
afternoon or evening but will try as soon as I can. Many thanks. Really
appreciate it.
We have lift off!!! Thank you everyone. Iām in the process of setting my stones. I really appreciate all the help. What you didnāt tell me was, where to look for my bezel ā which took the better part of an hour searching since I had put it in the freezer the other day!!! ugh!
Hi everyone,
Iām inquiring if any orchidians have cast in place colored garnets - specifically good quality, untreated orange spessarite garnet gems under 1.5 carat. Recently, I purchased a parcel of faceted lovelies from one of my dealers and have been eyeing them and sketching ideas. Iām thinking about casting some in place. I also have of parcel of untreated orange sapphires. Iām concerned about the obvious - fracturing and color shift. My thought is to do a test in investment and very slowly ramp the temperature to 800F (7+) hours with hold times.
Has anyone out there successfully or otherwise used orange gems to cast in place? Iām thinking of sterling, 14 & /or 18kt yellow gold as casting metal.
In the past Iāve cast other precious gems in place with a range of results from perfection to disaster. I was previously dependent on others for kiln access for casting (which i did myself). Since then, my studio had developed into a stand alone workspace & Iāve added a nice kiln with an orton controller so i have autonomous control over ramp rates & temperatures. Part of the reason was frustration with circumstances & results i couldnāt control. Iāve lowered my casting flask temperatures to around 800 and air cooled and had generally great results, but different gemā¦ different universe to explore.
There was a thread from several years ago included below where Rick Martin of Martin_Design ('02) posted results of experiments on dark purple garnets in investment.
"ā¦couple of years ago I decided to try heat-treating garnets to see if I could lighten their color. I insulated several dark purple cut stones in a container of casting investment. In a series of tests I raised the temperature (in slow incremental steps) to 800F. (nochange, no cracks after overnight cooling); then to 1,000F. (same result); and finally to 1,300F. After cooling, this test showedcracks in a couple of stones but most survived the heat just fine. "
Caveats and suggestions welcome.
Thanks,
Eileen
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Three colours you can use;
Red=> Ruby
Blue=> Blue Sapphire
White=> Diamond or CZ
Any other colour, Iād pass on them.
Think of the American flag colours, or anything lower on the Mohsā Scale of 9 or an 8 Iād steer away! Just my safe opinion!!
Iām Gerry, On my iPhone!
Eileen,
My opinion is that there is so much
risk in casting gems in place, and learning to be
skillful at setting should be the goal, you
have to learn to set those gems you cannot
cannot cast in place.
My opinion is also that quality suffers with
cast in place.
There is not quality fine jewelry made
with cast in place gems.
Unless you are fabulous at wax work
and a wizard at finishing, I would think you
would not save time and end up with
something you are not going to be happy with.
I believe cast in place was developed for
low end, low quality jewelry, unless that
is your market.