Student of the Week- Kate Sheehan

by jeanettecaines on November 1, 2010

22k gold and fancy sapphires

22k gold and fancy sapphires

 Congratulations to our latest Student of the Week- Kate Sheehan.   These earrings are beautiful but Kate struggled with the jump rings quite a bit.  I thought I would give some tips on jump rings because they are a common stumbling block for students.

  First of all, it is important to consider your jump rings while you are making your bezels.  You must leave enough height to accommodate your jump rings AND still have the room to set your stones.  Often people will go sanding their bezels down quite low without considering the height of their jump rings or the bezel height required to use your bezel roller to set.  Also, the number of jump rings must be considered.  The two basic choices for a piece like this is two or three jump rings between each bezel.  In the case of three jump rings, each bezel has a jump ring soldered flat against the side of the bezel, parallel to the bottom of the bezel.  The third jump ring is threaded through the two flat ones on the bezels and soldered shut.  This scenario leaves the most room for setting and can accommodate the the lowest bezels.  Kate wanted to use only two jump rings between bezels for more of a minimalist look.  This requires one jump ring soldered horizontally and the other soldered vertically.  This takes up a lot more height and can impede setting.  With proper planning this is no problem but make sure you consider this before you decide on the height of your bezels.  One last thing about soldering your jump rings on.  Put your flame on the bezel not the jump ring. The jump ring will get hot enough by just being there.  If you put the flame on the jump ring, it being smaller, it will be hotter than the bezel so the solder  (which always goes towards the most heat) will run onto the jump ring and not attach to the bezel.  I’m sure all students have had that happen to them!  We will talk more about soldering another day.  I hope everyone will join us at our annual show of staff work Saturday and Sunday Nov 13th and 14th.  Click for details here.  Here is to Kate and a job well done!!

jeanettecaines

Latest posts by jeanettecaines (see all)

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post:

WordPress Admin