Hey all I am trying to create setting beads in wax.(nice and round)
and definately uniform, does anybody have any suggestions ??
thanks Alan
Hey all I am trying to create setting beads in wax.(nice and round) and definately uniform, does anybody have any suggestions ??
Alan, Are you talking about making bead settings in carving wax? If
so, I do this all the time for production models. I basically drill
the seats so I can rest the girdles of the melee at the surface of
the metal. Then I a jour or countersink the backs of the holes. I
cut the wax with gravers as if I were precutting beads in metal.
(See Setting of Gemstones by Walter Zeiss) Note that you are not
digging in and raising the bead because the carving wax would just
break off. You are merely cutting to create raised areas separated
by the cuts. Get rid of excess wax between the seats and along the
sides of the seats using round, onglette and flat gravers. Then cut
the bright cuts. You can also divide and cut the triangular areas at
the ends of your beaded strips.
When the graver work is done, I take an electric waxer with a thin
copper wire extension (28 gauge, maybe smaller) attached and melt
the cut beads round. Sometimes, it requires adding a little wax to
even out the beads. Be very careful when rounding tiny bumps of wax
or you will blob the beads together. If this happens, carefully
recut with a fine graver and remelt with the wire tip.
Hope this helps. If you need more clarification, contact me off
line.
Donna Shimazu
Hello Alan,
Attach a tiny bead of hot wax where you want the bead, then gently
twist a cup bur of the desired size over the bead. Make sure your
cup bur is free of any metal. (Also, you might want to practice a
bit on a piece of scrap wax before you do it on the actual model.)
Marta
Hey all I am trying to create setting beads in wax.(nice and round) and definately uniform, does anybody have any suggestions ?? thanks Alan
Alan, Are you talking about making bead settings in carving wax? If
so, I do this all the time for production models. I basically drill
the seats so I can rest the girdles of the melee at the surface of
the metal. Then I a jour or countersink the backs of the holes. I
cut the wax with gravers as if I were precutting beads in metal.
(See Setting of Gemstones by Walter Zeiss) Note that you are not
digging in and raising the bead because the carving wax would just
break off. You are merely cutting to create raised areas separated
by the cuts. Get rid of excess wax between the seats and along the
sides of the seats using round, onglette and flat gravers. Then cut
the bright cuts. You can also divide and cut the triangular areas at
the ends of your beaded strips.
When the graver work is done, I take an electric waxer with a thin
copper wire extension (28 gauge, maybe smaller) attached and melt
the cut beads round. Sometimes, it requires adding a little wax to
even out the beads. Be very careful when rounding tiny bumps of wax
or you will blob the beads together. If this happens, carefully
recut with a fine graver and remelt with the wire tip.
Hope this helps. If you need more clarification, contact me off
line.
Donna Shimazu
P.S. This technique of casting waxes with beads and “bright cuts” is
done to cut production time/cost by permitting less skilled setters
to set diamond melee in midrange jewelry. They don’t have to do
layout, drill, or be highly skilled with gravers.
After the casting is prefinished and prepolished, a wire brush (fine
crimped brush) is used to brush the beaded area to get rid of the
dull casting surface. (NOTE: Gravers can be used to touch up at
this time.) Hart burs are used to tuck and seat the diamond melee.
Round and flat gravers are used to nudge the beads in place and
tighten the stones. Beading tools burnish the beads down and
further tighten the stones. The “bright cuts” can be touched up
with polished gravers or with a knife edge Shofu Brownie silicone
wheel. The bead setting is polished with a soft 7/8" mounted MK
wheel brush, first with Fabulustre. (NOTE: The outer hairs on each
side of the wheel brush are burned prior to polishing to give a more
pointed edge to the brush, allowing it greater access when angling
diagonally, back and forth and between the beads and along the
bright cut areas.) Ultrasonic and steam the piece, then go back
with another MK wheel brush and polish with red rouge.
Alan - I use a 28 ga. tip on my MasterTouch wax pen. It takes some
practice but if you’re adept at using a wax pen it shouldn’t take
too long to get the hang of the proper temperature, wax amount, and
pressure. And it definitely works for bead setting or "fake pave’ "
: ) Marge
sorry Donna the word spelling is “Azure”…corrective word
management…:>) Another thing to do Donna is to ‘cut’ a simple
bearing in the wax claw with a 156C (bearing cutting bur) with twirl
the bur with your finger tips to give a seat for the stone once its
in a gold form. All the loose wax MUST be removed prior to the
investment pouring, once its in the gold form its the pits to remove
after…:> ( …again Gerry!
Marta and Alan AND ALL! I used to work at a mass producing jwllry
company the head model maker used very thin wax wire and placed the
wax wire tips around the hole for each stone. right close to the
hole, right to the edge, he then snipped off the top, and then he
shaped it to the correct height. as for the for the inside non-used
wires, he just filled in the empty spaces with, again, wire tips.
this was only used for decoration, he always asked me how far away
should the wire tips be for the stone to be used in the actual stone
setting.
Folks, just fill in the wires with planning, and maybe have 6 wires
around a hole, that is the basic four beads and two more in-between
the two stones 0: : :0: : :0 got it?..:>) gerry!
Marge and all on wax setting topic I use for my class the cheapest
heating pen about $35.00, one battery, but it works like a charm. I
find that the air surrounding the tip is heated and then it slowly
heats up the stone so …s.l.o.w.l.y…it sinks the stone into the
wax form…“thou shalt not over heat the stone” to get it in. what
happens is that the ruddy stone gets buried and it gets submerged
well into the wax…what I do is just very simple procedure heat up
the ‘air’ and wait for the wax to dissolve around the
pavillion…(looks like water) immediately take away the hot tip and
voila, its done…move onto the next stone, no big deal its really
easier than you thought. Use wax setting only on CZ’s, Diamonds,
Rubies, Sapphires, nuttin else! experiment on all sizes and shapes, I
use the red wax, its easier to use than the blue casting wax. Gerry!
Sorry Gerry,
The word is a jour or a joure (French origin). I don’t have the
diacritical marks to put over the a and e. Azure is a color.
I am not wax setting and casting in place. I am also not cutting
the final seat in wax. I am precutting beads and bright cuts. The
wax is immaculate with no tool marks. Think of this almost as
pinpoint setting. All the areas where metal would be removed in
advance is done in the wax carving. The wax is cast, polished,
sprued and molded. The hart bur actually cuts the seat and the
diamond is angled in dropped snugly in the resulting production
metal castings. I sometimes use a brass pusher to tuck the stone
down flat and snug. I use gravers to then nudge the beads over and
I use the beading tools to burnish and tighten the beads up. When I
speak of nudging, it may be inserting a flat graver down between
shared beads and tipping the graver to slightly spread the beads or
putting the graver between the base of the beads and the bright
cuts. If you like, I can jpeg you a photo of a wax.
Yes, this goes counter to drilling holes, seating stones, raising
beads, burnishing down the beads and bright cutting - all the
timeless and beautiful skills you’ve worked so long to achieve.
Sadly, many companies can’t or won’t hire highly skilled setters to
produce moderately priced jewelry, not when melee is being wax in
the orient.
If highly skilled, yet affordable diamond setters were available to
do price competitive jewelry production, most of the models would
have a joured or counter sunk holes (pilot or placement holes if you
wish). The actual seating, cutting, bead raising, etc. would be
left to the setter. That would also provide flexibility in the
melee used since the skilled setter would adjust accordingly if
larger or smaller stones were desired. Instead, the diamond sizes
are dictated since everything is predetermined in the original
carved model.
If anyone wants to see a bead set wax carving, contact me off line.
Your server has to be able to take a relatively dense jpeg.
Best,
Donna Shimazu
I do stand corrected…never argue with a women…:>) LOL ! Donna
really knows what she is doing and how to do her stuff ! ! ! ! I
once worked for a mass producing company some years ago what they
were paying the skilled setters then would boggle your mind,
pittance! I just walked away…I was happy that I didn’t have to
feel like I was working in a 3rd world country, in our own country
(Canada ! ) The wax carvers were making wax forms like Donna just
sent me…“beautiful”!!!
The whole idea was that anyone with a few days of experience could
set these little diamonds and be paid the minimum of hourly rates,
therefore cheap setting rates, magnetic tumbling by the “hundreds”+
per day, just a light rouge and begone, casting, setting, rouge and
in one day, out by 4:30 p.m. courier…:>? thinking of the retail
client? these were just numbers been set, and out! …Gerry!
Hi Donna ,Gerald and all Thanks for your reply, I have a lot of
experience with the wax pen and I am raring to give all your
sugestions a go. Gerald with regards to using wax wires, are you
talking about commercially bought wire ? The thinnest wire I have
seen is quiet thick ± 1.2mm . On the other hand I was thinking I
could inject wax into chenier pretty much any thickness I want.
Thanks Alan
The best way i’ve found to make wax wires is with the Matt gun. You
can extrude wires in whatever thickness you need, and the wax is
much stronger than commercial wax wires, especially important in
thinner gauges.
Janet Kofoed