Fixed Byzantine Clasp

I'm pretty sure I posted about this previously. I was polishing one of the Byzantine clasps, and the bail broke off. I attempted to fix it, but melted the filigree. I had used easy solder, I'm pretty sure, and the joints just fell apart. It didn't help that I was attempting to add a chonky bail to match the original better. So that failed piece and the other half (which had also lost a granule), sat on my workbench for a few months. Well, I finally had the time to make a new mate. (And fix that granule.)

I did a few things differently on this one, and I like the outcome. First, I soldered the outer ring. 

Not so different, so far. But next, I attached the filigree to itself first. 

This made attaching it to the ring SO MUCH EASIER. 

At some point, I'm going to get these stupid granules to go exactly where I want them to. This wasn't it. They should touch both the bail and the beaded wire. Oh, well. Close enough. They're firmly attached, at least. (Photo is pre-firing, you can see the solder chunks).

Attaching the chonky bail is always a challenge. It took several tries, and I eventually caved and used paste solder. That worked much better. 

You can see above how the granules are attached to the bail and not the beaded wire. So annoying. But I'm not going to redo it. 

Bonus March project - a Gift

I decided to revisit a version of an old favorite. This Merovingian ring. 

I ended up using a thinner wire for the hoop, so two things happened: 1, cutting the wire to make the back attachment was a bear, and 2, I omitted the granules on the sides of the bezel. They just didn't fit. But here are some process photos. 

Overall, this ring is basically an old favorite. I've made many like it, with the modifications I mentioned above. For some reason, it took me three tries to get the main bezel to solder. I ended up using medium solder for it, but I was still able to use medium for the rest of the bezel decoration and backplate attachment with no problems. Everything else went smoothly, though I won't be attempting this sort of shank attachment with this gauge again! 

February-March project

So this finishes the loop in loop chain project by making a completed item. And it was a bear. I started the pendant out and it was great. I soldered the bezel. 

Cut the bezel plate. 

Filed it and attached the four jump rings to it. 

I started setting the stone, and disaster struck. 

One of the rings wasn't firmly attached. 

So I had to start all over. And at this point, I was making two, with two different stones (and full disclosure, the process photos are a mix of all three attempts). I wasn't heartbroken over the first one because the bezel wire was a little too tall. After redoing the process, I finally had success! 

Attaching the loop in loop chain, using little sterling silver pins, was easy. The top of each pin has been melted into a head, and the bottom is just twisted over.

And here's the original that it's based on. 

I feel good about this, although attaching the fourth jump ring was a bear. On both of my second attempts. I gave up on the binding wire and just used a third hand for the ring attachment. It was still an absolute nightmare and there's a lot of solder buildup on some of the rings. I had to go down in wire size for my pins. But the connection is solid and the rings are largely hidden. I'm pleased, but I think I'd like to try this one again, a third time.

This is also one of the largest bezels that I've successfully set. Actually the largest, and one of the larger projects. The only larger one is the pendant that I made for Scott that had a lot of flaws. This isn't perfect, but it's better. There's one wobble in the bezel setting because the jump ring connection gets in the way. I don't have that problem on the other one (which I haven't set yet).

Next time, I will take more care in fitting the jump rings flat to the bezel. They're so tiny, I left them round without a flat edge, and I'm sure that's why they fought so hard. The third hand seemed to do a good job of equalizing the size of the bezel in terms of heat distribution. 

More Loop in Loop

After completing the loop in loop sections that I need for my next project, I realized that it was just too big. Not comically so, but the links don't match the scale. We know from the museum that the whole piece is about 13" long, with a pendant that looks, to me, to be maybe about 1/2". I'm eyeballing that, it's not provided in the description. My pendant is closer to 1", so I'm shooting for 6" chain sections. I have maybe half the links that the original has, in the same approximate length. Again, I don't think this looks bad, and I'm still going to finish it. 

That said, I wanted to try a 3/8" mandrel and see what that resulted in. I think it looks much better. It may still be a little big, but it's substantially closer. I also have a 5/16" mandrel, but I'd want to reduce the wire gauge. Since I want to use the material that I already have on hand, I'm going to stick with the 3/8" for the second version. 

Here's the original that I'm working to emulate. My pendants are both going to be agates, and of course, my metal is silver. So it's going to be close, but not exact.