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Inspiration, goldworking
for engagement rings
Trimming off some excess gold.
When making a setting for a gemstone, one I use frequently is the plain "rub over". This involves bending up a wall to house the stone, with a base to provide a ledge for the stone to sit on, thick enough to accept a hollow filed into it to match the curve of the inside of the ring. Diamonds and other facetted stones have their settings made differently.
Bending a
gold strip to fit round an opal.
The wall
of a stone setting, ready for soldering. You can see the
little clippings of gold solder waiting to flood into the
joint.
Smoothing
the main part of the ring with fine grade sandpaper, prior to soldering
in the setting for the opal.
When finishing the piece, I don't create a surface polish which mostly just reflects the piece's surroundings - the result of which is you cannot very easily see the true colour of the gold itself.
The way I treat yellow gold to produce a very rich colour, involves nothing more than ancient techniques.. in fact any special polishing (eg. inside a ring), is mostly just done with a polished burnisher made from a material much harder than gold.
This is of course more time consuming than using a polishing motor, but I prefer the results.
A peridot and amethyst ring. I've set the stones, but haven't burnished it yet.