Ruby Ring

I've been on a ring-making kick lately.
I tried my hand at a bezel setting this week.  I didn't want to waste any silver on my first attempt, so I ran a strip of copper through a rolling mill to thin it enough to make the bezel walls.  I used the copper bezel to set a piece of fused glass.

It turned out reasonably well, so I took the plunge and made a ring using sterling silver and a sweet little ruby cabachon.

I measured, cut, filed and soldered the silver bezel wire to the size of my ruby cab.  I sanded the bottom to make sure it would sit flat on a piece of sterling silver and soldered those together.

After cutting off the extra silver and filing the edges flush, I made a simple band of sterling wire.  Then I soldered the bezel cup onto the band.

Finally, I popped the ruby in and burnished the bezel walls to hold it in place.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

For in depth tutorials on the technique of bezel setting, check out these links:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bezel-Setting-Tutorial/ 

http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/articles/2000/may00/0500fys1.html