My First Bezel Setting with Granulation

I got really excited in my jewelry class when the next assignment was learning how to bezel set a stone!!  At this time, the Stone Setting class hours didn't work with my schedule ( and it's the one I really want to take too! ) so I figured I'd have to be patient till I am able to take it.  So happy me when the teacher told us we'll learn bezel setting!

She told us for the first one, pick a stone that is as round as possible (putting away that complex stone for later...) to make it easy the first time.  So of course, I pick a sweet little greenish turquoise (my favorite stone).  The bezel is fine silver and the back plate is my mom's sterling silver.  It ended up that I soldered it just right and the stone fit afterwards too! Phew! I didn't shape the bottom plate first because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet.

 I can't tell you the feeling of joy at learning this process. I have been waiting YEARS to learn this!

 See? No gaps! Yeah!

The sweet little stone I picked.  The dental floss is so I can get it out easily.

After this process, I shaped the plate. Making sure I got is as round and even all around too.
There is so much patience that goes into jewelry fabrication!

The week before my teacher did a demo on granulation and fusing. I really like little balls of silver on rings and jewelry so I thought I'd try it out. The teacher was all for it, so I got some fine silver and measured a lot of little pieces, cut them and laid them on a solder brick and took a fine torch to them and giggle when they got hot and pulled together with a little "boing" into little metal balls. 

My teacher told me to put a strip of solder around the bezel and melt it.  I know there are other ways, but for right now, this was what she wanted me to do.  After that, I fluxed (Flux is your friend!) and laid the balls all around the edge and crossed my fingers that it would all work out!  Smart me took a picture of how it was supposed to look in the end!

As it turned out only 10 stuck! So next time in class I got more creative and more flux and tiny bits of solder in crevices and I got all of them to stay! Phew! Afterwards, my teacher (with a big grin) told me they sell ball wire so you don't have to do it individually!! But hey, it's all about the learning process right?

Can you feel how happy I am!! The stone is just in there right now for looks as I work on the ring shank next. I soldered it to it and now have to fix the shape a bit. Then I'll set the stone in for good!!  

I am really looking forward to the next few years when I have more experience in this field and really get to make all the ideas that have been floating around my head all these years.