Long ago (it seems) my husband and I had bits and pieces of a traditional metalworking setup, torches, solder, etc., but never a rolling mill. We packed it all away when we moved 12 years ago, and only started unpacking it a couple of months ago. In late 2005 I started up with silver clay to satisfy my urge to make silver jewelry and have textured surfaces. In late 2008, with no background whatsoever, I started enameling on silver clay.  And with no torch nor solder, I figured out a way to make bezel settings with silver bezel wire and metal clay.

This is not for silver clay beginners. You really need to have a feel for the properties of the particular metal clay you are using. I got some of my ideas for making settings from Deb Fitz. 

I like my bezel set jewel to sit lower in the setting, so rather than attach fine silver bezel wire to the top of a (silver clay) sheet, I make the backing in two layers and sink the bezel down past the top one.

Silver clay shrinks when fired; the amount of shrinkage depends on the brand and type of clay. I use almost exclusively Art Clay Silver 650 Slow Dry, which shrinks about 8 – 12%, depending on firing time and temperature. When firing silver clay with fine silver wire, the clay shrinks around the wire as far as it can, and then, if it’s not yet fully sintered, continues to shrink, causing deformation around the fine silver wire and, in the worst case, it may crack and split and spit out the wire. You need to account for this shrinkage when designing your piece.

Bend your fine silver bezel wire around your enamel jewel, leaving it somewhat loose, allowing a bit of wiggle room. “Solder” the bezel, either by dabbing on a bit of Art Clay Oil Paste (formulated to join regular fine silver and/or fired silver clay) and firing it according to instructions, or with actual solder that will not flow at enameling kiln temperatures. Check the fit and clean up the join.

Roll out a slab of silver clay that will be the back of your piece, and texture if desired. You want it to be about two cards thick (0.5mm), so if you have a deep texture, start with it about three cards thick (0.75mm) and roll it into the texture sheet until it’s two cards thick (thicker is OK). Cut it to the desired shape. You can lighten the piece, reduce the amount of silver clay used, and accommodate more shrinkage if you cut holes in the backpiece. I often use different sizes of straws or cutters to make a pattern, or cut out a large hole if I want to be able to see the back of the enamel jewel. Remember to leave a place to attach a finding. Set aside to dry.

For the top, roll out a slab of clay that will be three cards thick (more if you want your bezel deeper) after texturing. While still wet, use your bezel like a cookie-cutter to remove clay where your bezel will go. You will also need to remove an additional 1.5 - 3 mm of clay around this opening to account for shrinkage, depending on your type of clay. I use a combination of wiggling the cookie-cutter bezel at this step and filing when the clay is dry. You can also calculate the size the opening needs to be, make a photocopy of your bezel, and then make an appropriate enlargement and use that as a template to cut around. If the bezel has relatively smooth curves, you can wrap two layers (or whatever it takes) of bezel wire around it and use that as the cookie cutter. After cutting the opening, cut around the outside to your final shape, just slightly larger than the back piece (which shrank while it dried). Let it dry.

Here is a picture of an enamel where I want both the front and back of the enamel to be visible, so I made a large hole in the textured top for the bezel and a single hole for the plain back. In addition, this became a box lid that could also be worn as a reversible pendant.

After the top piece has dried, file and refine the opening until it is the right size and shape to hold the bezel with a 2 mm (or whatever you calculate) gap. If  you are planning to have a narrow frame around the bezel, filing this fragile ring can be difficult without breaking it.

Moisten both back and top pieces and join them together with silver paste, making sure you have a little bit squishing out the sides. Let dry, then file the outside edge until you can’t see the seam. Fill, dry and file any gaps.

Attach any findings you want to use, such as a bail or pin finding. For brooches I use fine silver pin findings from Art Clay World http://www.artclayworld.com/ or depletion gilded sterling findings from Whole Lotta Whimsy http://www.wholelottawhimsy.com/wo/content/shopping/product?s=4945947&c=4804580&p=1037639   Lately I’ve been cheating (I feel) and using glue-on combination bail/pin findings from Rio Grande.

The reason you made the bezel a little loose is that it can be deformed by the shrinkage of the silver clay during firing. One way I combat this is to fill the bezel with jewelers’ investment plaster before firing. I press the bezel about a millimeter or so into a rolled-out slab of polymer clay

and fill it with investment. The polymer clay keeps the wet investment from leaking out. Make sure the investment is thoroughly dry before setting it on your silver clay!

Center your filled bezel as well as you can in the opening in your setting. Fire the piece according the instructions for your type of clay. The investment will wash out after firing.

Odds are that the shrinking of the clay caused your piece to dome (pull down) around the bezel. I’ve learned to control this and use it as a design feature. Pieces that are totally flat stick to my skin (another excuse). The larger your opening around your bezel, the less the doming, so plan
accordingly. Odds are also that there are some gaps between your silver clay setting and the bezel and, in any case, you want to make sure the bezel is secure. Fill any gaps and, perhaps, add a line of Art Clay Oil Paste around the inside of the bezel, making sure you do not add so much thickness that your enamel jewel won’t sit in it properly. You may or may not need to fill gaps on the outside of the bezel as well. Fire again, according to instructions for the Oil Paste. Inspect and repair again, if necessary.

Brush/tumble/burnish/polish/patina your piece as desired.

This is a fired piece from the front.

 

This is the back, fired, but before I set the enamel and added the pin.

 

Here it is with the pin finding and the set enamel. Later I figured I should have made the counter enamel prettier and place the holes better!

 

The finished piece. I didn’t do a good job filling gaps around the bezel. I got better at this, I swear, but haven't taken pictures of the process.

 

 

Front side

 

Backside

 

 

Finished silver clay box with removable lid that becomes a pendant

If you do not have holes in the back behind the opening, lay a piece of dental floss across the opening and check the fit of your jewel. (You can use the holes to poke out or the floss to lift out the jewel if it gets stuck). Mount your enamel jewel as usual, remembering that you can’t use sawdust or anything smaller than your holes to level your piece  if you made holes in the back.  

Take a picture and post it here!

Aloha, Tina

 

This is a great tutorial -
I thought Bezel setting would be easier - the shrinkage problem for the novice I can see would present a big problem. But if I am correct, are you saying that if you lay the the investment form into the bezel on the silver clay piece and fire it, the bezel and the back will remain the size it is suppose to be for the enamel piece and not shrink?

Thanks! No, using silver clay for bezel setting is not for the faint-hearted.
I fill the bezel with investment to keep it from being deformed if the silver clay shrinks up hard around it and squeezes it. It does keep the clay from shrinking any more toward the bezel wire, but if the clay wants to shrink more (you miscalculated the gap between the bezel and the top layer of clay), it will pull downwards and dome more. Hard to describe. I guess I need to take a picture! This still usually has a better outcome than just pushing a bezel into wet metal clay.

Thank you Tina for an absolutely wonderful tutorial! It is a bit different than just pushing your bezel wire down into the clay and your experience shows it will work better if you calculate correctly. I'll have to do some measuring to determine shrinkage and then give this a try. Thanks again.

Hi Tina, great info. THanks! I am pondering doing this for my enamels. ALSO, what about planning to do the enamel after the bezel is done, then fit it to the bezel? I thought about planning the item, with shape and drawing of the enamel, then cutting the enamel disc/shape as size is then set in metal.
Also, is jewelers investment plaster some special property that doesn't apply to normal plaster of paris?
I sort of remember on Ganoksin, a comment to the effect it can be used in place.?? anyone know if it works?

Hi, Terry, thanks. Personally I have not tried making the setting first and then trying to make an enamel to fit, primarily because I find my silver base warps a bit and I'm afraid it would not fit after it is finished. Well, actually I sort of did this once when I removed a piece from its setting and made a new one for the setting, but I had the exact template of the irregular shape, and I made it just a tiny bit smaller so I wouldn't have to grind off much ... I tend to bring my enamel pretty high all the way to the sides. So, I suppose it would work! Try it and tell me!
As for the jewelers investment vs plaster of paris, I think the investment is a bit finer-grained and designed for higher temperatures. but for silver clay temps the plaster of paris might be just fine. You could do without it altogether, but I find my bezel shape holds just a bit better if I use it.
Give it a try and post pictures!
Aloha, Tina

Hi Tina,

I just finished a great piece - made the bezel - set it in PMC3 in class - cut around the
design I wanted, dried and fired it -

Well - the bezel popped up in one area and the inside of the bezel domed -
My instructor says that I did not have enough metal clay area around the bezel to afford
the shrinkage - but why did the inside of the bezel warp? I was worried that as the metal clay began to shrink, it had to push against the bezel.. she insisted it wouldn't but am I right -
so I had to go in and add filler to cover the gap - I have not been back in class until tomorrow - so I don't know how the piece came out - but i have tons now of metal clay on this pendant - I will need a forklift to wear it around my neck.

I have several bezels lined up for metal clay backings, but now I am afraid the same thing is going to happen to me again -science tells me that as something shrinks it has to push against the solid object ( the bezel) that is depressed into it.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Trish

I'm not sure I understand what happened (it's late, I'm tired). Did the bezel itself warp? I like to fill the bezel with jewelers' investment to make sure the metal clay, which WILL try to shrink around the bezel, will not deform the bezel itself.

Remember, I do 2-layer settings; the top one will contain the bezel and the bottom one is the backing. To minimize doming you need to make sure there is a pretty good space between the outside clay (top layer) and the bezel. Technically you should do the math to allow for shrinkage (depending on which clay you use), but if I make the space a couple of millimeters, it usually turns out OK.

I make my 2-layer pieces so that there is not any clay inside the bezel (which is in the top layer, with a space around it) to push the bezel up and out of the clay. The layer of clay underneath will try to dome up, the amount depending on the amount of movement of the top layer, which will be minimized if you have that space around the bezel before firing. I kind of like some doming, but with enough of a space you can get it to fire completely flat. The gap between the bezel and the outside (top) clay needs to be as even as possible or it might push up against the bezel more in one place and cause it to pop out or cause the piece to warp.

It is indeed difficult to make a small rim around the outside of the bezel, mainly because it is touchy to file a very thin donut. A fatter rim is easier to handle, but I think the absolute amount of clay does not matter.

Lisa Barth has some awesome bezel pieces. She approaches it differently. She wrote an article in Metal Clay Artist Magazine, Vol. 1 Issue 3, page 63. She uses a tabbed bezel wire set on top of the clay and cuts out a hole behind the bezel. From what I understand, having a large hole behind where the jewel will go helps to minimize distortion. She surrounds the bezel on her 1-layer piece by adding a snake or syringe around the outside of the bezel. The main reason I came up with my weird 2-layer method is so that I can lower the profile of the bezel and set a jewel deeper, so that it doesn't stick out so far.

Does this help?

Aloha, Tina

Great tutorial Tina!!! GAWD you have really been turning out some beauties in enamel...I can see why you're not posting very often on the yahoo group:)) I still think the box is my favorite:))