How to Make a Sterling Silver & Gem Stone Ring (Journeyman Level)

I will be sharing with you how I have, & you can make this ring. Not a beginner project, but also not too difficult. I will assume you already know of the skills needed for this project.

Materials:

Silver sizing stock ( I am using 3.5mmx 1.5mm material)

Silver bezel material ( I like thicker than most people for this at 0.8mm)

Round or Square silver wire ( I use 16 gauge for this)

Silver solder ( I only use hard solder for the whole build)

Cabochon Stone ( can be any shape or size, just not too small)

Tools:

Jewelry bench / workplace

rotary tool could be a dremel or flex shaft ( & the tools that go in them)

Torch ( I use a Smith little torch with propane & oxygen)

A pickle pot ( a must when soldering sterling silver, use after every soldering action)

files, pliers, dividers, mandrel, jewelers saw, hammer, millimeter gauge, third hand, ring Vice, just to name a few.

Take our sterling silver strip material and form around a mandrel, and check around stone often. Once the desired size is made mark where to cut. Cut access Material off. This can be done with a jewelers saw, or snips. If done with snips then we need to file flat the edge. Readjust the ends to meet and check against the stone again. Next we are going to solder the bezel together. Once done we deoxidize in our pickle pot. Sand or file the inside of the bezel to remove excess solder. And check against the stone again. If too small you can use a hammer & the mandrel to make the bezel a little longer by tapping all the way around stretching the material a little bit. If too big saw out a small portion where the connection is & solder again. I like the bezel to be just the slightest bit big so the stone is just a hair loose so it comes out of the bezel easily, but not so much that it can spin any.

Taking the round or Square wire we are going to make the bottom of the bezel. Making the same shape as our bezel slightly smaller to fit inside the bezel material, to make a shelf for the stone to sit on top. I like to have the joint of this material be at a different spot than the joint of the bezel. I believe when assembled it makes for a stronger piece overall. We want the wire to fit nice and tight without forcing the shape of the bezel. If the wire is a little small when you're done, you can try hammering a little bit to make slightly thinner but also slightly larger. If too large you can cut a piece out or file some off the outside edge. I like this piece fit snug but not so tight it changes the bezel. Solder into place flush with the bottom of the bezel once size is correct. I started with bezel material that was wider than necessary. My last step of creating the bezel was to trim a portion of the top of the bezel off.

Using our round or square wire again make a shape smaller than the Shelf material of the bezel. I like to use round for this. Incorporate the length of the diameter of this shape into the length of the bar material that we are going to cut for the ring sizing. If you do not get the size correct we can always size later on. Once you have the length of material for your shank, measure the distance in from the end the distance we want to have our split. Using our dividers we are going to measure the middle of the material to our mark of how deep we want the cut. Cut along the marked area to make the split in the material. We can now round the material to be close to the size the ring is going to end up being. flare out the ends of the shank. File or rotary tool grooves in the tips of the shrink to accept our shape of wire. Allow the shank to be slightly small so that once in the grooves the piece is held in by itself. Solder into place. Once soldered into place we can use the mandrel to round this section off. We will now know the final size the shank has come out to be. This is a good time for resizing if needed. I would size at the bottom of the ring as to not disturb the split in the shank or the shaped section we made earlier.

Depending on how many support bars you want to add, will determine the pattern of the support bars. Here I am using six, so I start adding at North and South. A soldering third hand helps a lot here. I like the spacing that I've come up with for support bars 3 thru 6 next to the shank. I have soldered the bars on longer than they need to be, so that we can position on top of the bezel and mark for trimming. We also want to bend the arms so that they meet the bezel. Once we trim we are also going to file Flats onto the support bars. This way we'll have a good joint to combine the shank and the bezel. Once spacing has been determined, solder the ring and the bezel together. File any overhang of the support bars past the edge of the shank. ( I have made this ring with 4 support bars at north south east & west before)

Here I am making simple round domed shot pieces. I am weighing out material so that we have 2 that matches. We are going to be making two identical domed pieces using our dapping block as a shot plate. Once two groups of pieces weigh the same melt each one into a single bead. Add the bead to the dapping block so that when we hammer, the bead will fill the dapping block depression. This will create a uniform shape. You can use the beads as they are after melting if you desire. Shot plate of other shapes can also be used. Once our pieces are made, add to the shank for another connection point between the shank and the bezel. This accent design could also be a spot to add accent stones. Changing the accents is part of your design choice. You could add a leaf, a small bend of wire, or leave blank. ( You can see here I forgot to add these till I was done with the next step)

I like to cut the bezel into segments which allow for easier removal of the Stone in case the ring needs to be resized. I start with a single cut at north south east and west. With this ring I then divided each segment by half and made another cut and then each additional segment after that by half again and another cut. This left me with 16 segments.

After cutting the segments I like to shape them a little bit. This can be done with files or rotary tools. Here I am adding a relatively simple angled edge to each segment. I'm also filing a slight angle to the top of each segment. On other rings I have made each segment rounded, as these are designed choices that can be changed for your preference. The thicker than normal bezel material allows for more stable segmented bezels than thinner material.

This is the last chance to resize the ring before we set. Setting the stone in a segmented bezel is easier than setting a stone in a full bezel. I start with one segment and push down onto the stone. I then rotate to the opposite side of the stone and push down another segment. I will go halfway in between and push down another segment, and again the opposing side. I follow this pattern all the way around the stone until all the segments are down. With a normal bezel you are shrinking the material around the stone. With segmented bezels you don't need to do that, as the cuts allow of the metal to move as needed with out shrinking.

Round off any uncomfortable bits of the support bars, & edges of the bezel underside. I like to round off the edges of the inside of the ring as well. Once desired shaping has been finished I like to go over the ring with medium Grit sanding and shaping rotary tools. Once this has been achieved we do final polish.