Ok, for those of you who know me, you will probably be aware that my OCD knows no bounds, and once I discover something new, I can't help myself but to get completely carried away! Claw setting is my new thing! Cerys did a demo for our second years last friday, and as part of the session I made a stone setting myself, and im ashamed to say it was my first attempt, but as far as first attempts go, it was pretty good!
This little beauty is my first ever attempt at claw setting, and I was so chuffed, its all I have wanted to do since! making the claw setting are deceptively simple, and are a real challenge if you love tiny fiddly things, which I do, because everything has to be precise, because it is so obvious if its not.
There a a few ways of making the basket, for the second stone setting I tried this method, which is a little fiddly as it requires 10 solder joints, all in hard and medium, but it was better that trying to arrange all the pegs around the basket!
This is the first ring, the clear stone, where there was only one support, and to attach the setting to the ring base, I cut a section into a ring that I had made, and positioned it around the basket and soldered.
Once the whole piece had been soldered, the ring is then put into the pickle to clean and then I polished the whole unit on the buffing wheel, using tripoli and then the rouge.
Once its polished I then mark off the areas on the pegs with a permanent marker to create the seat, and then, very gently, I file the notches into the wire, and half set the stone using a pair of pliers. I cut the pegs and fully set the stone, and then burnish for a high shine.
So there we have it! I can see that claw settings will keep me going for a few weeks yet, and I have spent the last two days making a ruck of setting tools, so Im keen, and at the moment its all I can think about!
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