u/jeddzus

So I made this piece, which has been quite… fun… lol. Originally the silver on the front was a beautiful ornate knot pattern wire, but I couldn’t for the life of me get it to solder on the brass behind it, and eventually I flipped it over and heated it from the back and pushed it down and when I turned it right side up I saw it had all melted! Hahah. Anyway I’ve been trying to make this work anyway and I’m pretty pleased with it all. I set the stone last night and had the bail attached, but during setting I broke the bail off…… of course. So I had to heat the piece and try reattaching the bail. No success so far. Anyway last night I took the piece out of the pickle and didn’t notice anything too funky, but when I just went to check it out it has this hardened blue stuff adhered to it. It’s pretty hard to get off. Is that due to the bronze we think? Any ideas lol?

This is my first shot at this one, I was sort of winging it most of the way through and this is where I landed! Let me know what yall think, I plan on doing more variations on this sort of idea. Thanks for looking.

Hey yall, I acquired a big sack of Swarovski style crystals, and not a single one of them fit into one of the standard settings I had lol. The only materials I had on hand were some silver wire and sheet, and a me sheet of bronze. I also still don’t have a flex shaft and my only cutting tool is a saw.. I figured I could cut tiny pieces of the bronze and fold the edges out so it would make a wide U shape, and then I could saw into it and use a triangle file as well to cut a groove into the little pieces. And then I folded the edges of the U the opposite direction, so I had a piece with a groove on the inside, and walls to prevent the stone from sliding out.

It took forever to solder them onto my silver wire because I don’t have one of those ceramic mandrels or anything, I just have the third hand tweezers and a solder tray.. anyway I got it all soldered up and, without having to do any bending or alterations, to my surprise the stone popped right in! I figured this sub would enjoy hearing that *snap* as much as I did lol so here is a short video of it. My plan is to wear it for a while and see how well it holds up over time. I love how unique and just sort of unbelievable this setting style is. Have yall tried this setting style before? I know it’s kinda controversial because of how sort of “insecure” it could be but whatever! Interested to hear this sub’s thoughts.