TFT - tiny details are sometimes really BIG

So I wanted to do some more tension setting last night, only I forgot one tiny detail. I don't have a slotted or grooved ring mandrel. Makes it a little hard to work on faceted stones like that. Only I didn't recall that tiny detail, which made a BIG deal to me. I was quite frustrated when I had my 8ga ring shank soaking in the pickle only to realize my mandrel is one big shiny mass of metal. No groove. I'm grooveless. Hmm, maybe I should have called this post "How Janice got her groove back on.." Except, well, I'm still grooveless.



I rattled around a bit, really kind of thrown off track. I finally ended up doing another tension setting with some halfround wire that I could shape quickly.









I filed it away in a sort of reverse mirror of the stone and then popped the stone in from the back (with some serious finagling). Gave the shank a scratch finish and away we go!








I have been doing a little more piercing lately - mostly on the backs of pieces just to add some interest. Combine that, with the fact that I keep looking at the hinged pendant up there in my banner - the one with the rhodocro. in it, and I've been itching to do MORE piercing - its like a subliminal message......brewing in my subconsicous.

You can see what I did to the back of the opal ring that I posted recently.





So last night I did a little tiny pierced pendant, intending to set a 5mm stone in a tube setting, but I ended up piercing more than I thought, then added some chased dots...so I had no room for what now seemed a really LARGE 5mm stone.

Instead I decided to flush set a 2mm citrine. Keep in mind my previous attempts at flush setting have been REALLY hit or miss. After much effort, gritting of teeth, huffing and puffing and near hissy fit (oh, and almost resorting to bead setting the darn thing) I got it flush set.



(yay!).


Thus ends another Tales from Tuesdayyyyyyyyyy.weeee-ewwwwww-woooooo-ooooooo.

;-)

Janice