a bear tooth pendant

i got a little commission from Raylyn last week to turn a bear tooth into a pendant for her friend. for some reason, i had it in my head that stone setting was one of the most tedious tasks on the planet - and because of that, i never design jewellery with stones in mind. this is such a waste though since i bought a ton of stones while i was still a student at OCAD, and i'm sure i had grandiose plans for each one of them.

the thing with stone setting (tooth, in this case) is that the bezel (the silver strip that hugs the stone) needs to fit snugly around the piece. if you measured wrong somehow or stretched it too much, you have to cut it open and solder it again. if you overstretch it, the seam can break. it has to fit just right. 

 

another issue is that you're pushing the bezel in around the stone with a steel tool that can easily scratch the surface if your hand slips. if a stone is a couple hundred dollars, or one of a kind, this can be quite a stressful task. thankfully this piece worked out very smoothly - i'm now encouraged to do more stone setting.

i forgot my camera for the next parts of the process, but i basically just soldered the bezel to sterling silver sheet, added a bale to string the cord through and then polished it up.

i hope he likes it!