I was wondering, which of you have seen Blaine Lewis’ pave
demonstration where he uses a Jolly Rancher to adhere his stones
during layout? When he demonstrated, he was able to lift the stones
right off, leaving a wonderful little table facet imprint behind in
what looked like perfectly hardened candy. When I tried this at home
however, I ended up with stringy goo when removing the stones. I
tried it again, this time leaving the work to dry overnight, and
still sticky. I think maybe he heated the work just slightly, which I
tried, too, and all my stones started rising off the piece and going
out of place. What crucial am I missing here?
Could it be the Jolly Rancher? (Back in the day) my younger brother
used to hoard his Halloween candy spacing it out until next
Halloween. The old Jolly Ranchers were always left at the end and
very very gooey. Maybe try a different batch of em’?
I haven’t seen the demonstration, but I’m wondering if perhaps you
stuck the candy and stones in the fridge overnight, if that wouldn’t
help harden the sugar even further, allowing you to cleanly pluck
the stones out? I don’t do pave work, but my kids love to make candy,
and on hot or humid days, we will often stash it in the fridge for a
while to make it harden more quickly.
I’m a graduate of Blaine Lewis’ New Approach School for Jewelers and
learned this technique for pave using Jolly Ranchers. After sucking
on a Jolly Rancher for a few minutes to soften, collect a good
amount of the sugary spit from the candy with your finger and smear
it on the metal you want to pave. Place the stones onto the sticky
surface, upside down, then hold a flame from a lighter underneath the
metal till the sugary spit becomes crystalized. I think you want a
gentle heat, otherwise the sugary spit will overheat and bubble.
After heating, the stones can be carefully popped off. There will be
a definite circle of clean metal where the stones were placed. Be
sure to keep the Jolly Ranchers tucked away where you won’t be
tempted to eat them. Otherwise, you’ll be making a trip to the store
whenever you want to do pave setting. When it comes to teaching stone
setting, Blaine Lewis rocks! Sign up for a class if you can or check
out his DVDs.
I saw the Blaine Lewis video back in 2001 or 02, really good info. As
I recall the idea was to put a thin film of the candy on the gold to
stick the stone on for placement calculations and the by-product was
a nice little mark to remember it by. Now I use Kate Wolf’s Wicked
Sticky for just about anything that requires stickiness. It is
reliable and can go on really chunky or really, really thin. Then it
scrapes off with your fingernail. Does the same thing as the candy
(and much more) and isn’t sticky like candy. Love it!