New Additions to our Sea Glass Collection

This was my first time making and setting something on my own ...

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These have been some of my favourite sea glass pieces I've made so far. A huge amount of time, work and material is put into a rub over set piece of jewellery, but the end result really makes up for it.

From a 0.8 mm thick silver sheet, an organically shaped bezel is pierced out and created to fit snugly around the individual piece of sea glass.
​A 0.6 mm thick flat base was then hard soldered to the bezel and  the base was pierced out from the inside of the setting, leaving a 1.5mm edge of base for the sea glass to sit on. We felt it was a tidier finish but allowing light through the back would also help enhance the colour of
the glass.

 I later cut and filed a fraction of silver from the top as Dad had warned that too much metal to push over can cause creasing in the silver and an untidy finish.
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Lastly before beginning to set, a small angle was filed around the top edge of the setting where I would be later pushing the silver.

Working from opposite sides, I gently but firmly pushed and wiggled the silver over – it took me a long time of doing this and re-filing the angle (to decrease the thickness of metal to be pushed over), before I was at the stage of changing angle and begin pushing almost downwards from the top.
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A final burnish round the top where the sea glass meets the silver, gave it that finishing touch before polishing.

Next time I'd like to pay more attention and care to reduce the marks made on the outside whilst setting, which will also help alleviate the amount of polishing needed after. I’d also try to remember to focus on troubling areas from earlier on in the process, as I hope this will help enclose the shape more evenly.
I'll have to make lots for the fun of it and hopefully I'll gradually get more skillful at setting.