[Source] Clear glass or acrylic cabochons

Dear All,

I am looking for a good source for round, clear, colorless glass or
possibly acrylic cabochons in a size 18mm and 25mm. I would be
thrilled to find ones with only a slight convex curve. I need 100-
1,000 to start and am not opposed to having them made for the project
I am doing. I wonder if any of you have a supplier you could
reccomend to me.

The project I am working on involves small pictures that I am placing
in bezels with the clear cabs right over them. I hope to to not
magnify/distort the image too much with the convex lens. If there is
a better way of acomplishing this and anyone has a better idea I am
open to sugestions.

Thank you!
Warm Holiday wishes,
Leslie

Leslie,

You can find quartz crystal caps (cabochons) that are usually used
for gluing to opal to make doublets and triplets. I believe there is
a glass cab supplier in England, but I’ve lost the link. Two quartz
cap suppliers that I know of are opalsmith.com and alpha-supply.com.
In rounds, they are available only up to 18mm. in diameter. You will
probably find that using these convex caps will distort your photos,
even using the “low dome” style.

I use 10 and 14 mm. high dome sizes for exactly that purpose
(magnification). These caps also have to be glued to their support,
as their back surface has a matt or satin finish (which completely
disappears when using epoxy, to become perfectly transparent). You
may want to look at watch crystals, which are available in literally
thousands of sizes and styles, both in organic (plastic) and mineral
(glass, sapphire, quartz, etc.) These are perfectly round, exactly
the same size and thickness, very hard, and have no visible
distortion. They also can be found in slightly convex shapes of equal
thickness to prevent distortion. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link
for you for a U.S. supplier, but that shouldn’t be hard to find. If
you use watch crystals; think about making your bezels waterproof.
I’ve seen pendants with photos (and other things) under glass get wet
and the photos wrinkle up. Not pretty. Hope all this helps.

Burton Randall
srdfrance.com

Hi Leslie,

one source you could try is Alpha Supply at:

I purchase quartz crystal caps for making opal triplets and ammonite
doublets from them.

here is the url for the listing of sizes and shapes:

http://www.alpha-supply.com/lapidary/index.php?id=1&scid=k1g&gid=842

The flat back of these is slightly rough to help the epoxy bond to
the cap and the opal/ammonite material. Once glued the “rough”
surface is no longer visible.

Happy hunting,

Mike O’Toole

PS apart from being a happy customer I have no connection to their
organization. :slight_smile:

watch crystals, which are available in literally thousands of sizes
and styles, both in organic (plastic) and mineral (glass, sapphire,
quartz, etc.) These are perfectly round, exactly the same size and
thickness, very hard, and have no visible distortion. 

Try www.casker.com (Cinncinati, OH) for just about any kind of watch
crystal style, size, shape, that you can imagine. Ask for the
crystral dept. They sell wholesale only, so you must have a sales
tax #. Always good service. Not affiliated, just a customer. Also I
can furnish a large selection of watch crystals that sound like what
you may be looking for. I have plastic or mineral glass, in 1mm to
2.5 mm thick, from around 13mm to 35mm diameter. I have them flat on
both sides, flat on one side and domed on the other, as well as domed
top with concave underside. I also have hexagons with black or
mirrored edges. Then I also have several thousand vintage watch
crystals, in assorted shapes, sizes, decorations, all new, still in
the packages. Let me know if I can help.

Ed in Kokomo

Leslie,

Try places like Tap Plastic for your acrylic cabochons. They sell
spheres and hemispheres, the hemispheres often sold as feet to be
attached to the bottom of boxes and such. They may also have some low
dome cabs.

HTH,
Donna Shimazu