JEWELLERY TUTORIAL | Make these Gemstone Stacking Rings

Welcome back to the Cognac Jewellery School. Today we're going to be making a trio of gemstone stacking rings, like these ones. Let's get started. For this project you will need three cabochon gemstones, a length of ring wire, a length of bezel strip, some silver sheet, and some thin wire. As always with making rings, the very first thing we need to know is the size of the rings we're going to make, so that we can work out how much wire to cut for each of our three ring shanks. If you have a ring sizer then great, and if you don't, then check the link in the description Once you have your ring size, work out how much wire you need to cut for the thickness of your metal, and saw three identical lengths. It's important that they're all exactly the same size, as if one is bigger than the others, your rings may end up being different sizes. Next, round your rings on a mandrel, until the ends come together in a nice curve, before bringing them to your bench peg to tidy up those joins. There are lots of different techniques to creating a perfect ring join, but I like to file the ends of the wire, and then saw through. Once you're happy with your joins, flux, solder, and quench each of your rings before popping them all in the pickle. While your ring shanks are pickling, turn your attention to your gemstones. Either using pliers, or just your fingers, if it's not too fiddly. Wrap your bezel strip around each of your stones, mark the point where the ends cross, and snip off the excess. And here's a top tip, don't let anyone borrow your snips to restring their guitar, as the strings will blunt the snips, and they won't work as well. Rant over. Once you have your three settings cut and ready, file down the ends to a right angle, so that your join will come together nicely, and solder them. Once soldered, quench all three, and pop them in the pickle. Once your ring shanks are nice and clean, bring them out of the pickle, and round them off on a mandrel, until they're perfectly round. Surprise, surprise. Don't forget to also make sure that they are flat, by putting them on a steel block, and giving them a wallop. Once they're round, and flat, you will have three identical stacking rings. Hopefully by this point, your soldered settings will be ready to remove from the pickle. Before anything else, give your settings a reshape, and check that they fit your stones. On the off chance that they don't, there's a bezel stretching hack linked in the description that might come in handy. Sand down the bottom of each of your settings, being careful not to bend it out of shape, before sawing out a piece of silver for each of the back plates. Make sure you remove any plastic coating from your silver sheet before soldering. Just in case you haven't made this mistake before, if you accidentally leave the plastic on, and then try to solder, it absolutely stinks, and is probably horribly toxic. So maybe don't do that. Place your back plate on a cotter pin, flux, and place your setting on top. Place your solder around the outside of your setting, and solder. By putting the solder on the outside of your setting, rather than the inside, it makes it much easier to file off if you accidentally use a little bit too much, or if it flows somewhere it shouldn't. Also, if you have a beautiful transparent stone, like we do here, the last thing you want to see when you look into them is a blob of errant solder. Once soldered, pop them in the pickle. While your settings are pickling away, you can tidy up your trio of rings. File out any excess solder from the inside of each ring using a rounded file, and from the outside using a flat file. File the sides on a piece of emery paper to make sure they're nice and flat, and then polish all three rings. I like to start the polishing process with emery sponges, working my way up from the coarsest grit to the finest, and finish them on a polishing motor and in the ultrasonic, but use whatever polishing methods you have available to you. The aim is to end up with three polished rings. When your settings are pickled, saw off any excess silver sheet using a saw. Try to keep as close to the setting as possible, without sawing through the fine silver walls of your setting. Once sawed through, take a flat needle file, and file off what remains of the silver backplate and any excess solder. Then polish the backs and sides of your setting with emery sticks or sponges until they begin to shine. And, call me neurotic, but before we go any further, let's just check that all of the stones still fit into, and come out of, your settings. If you've made it to the final solder, then well done, and thanks for sticking around. Turn that setting upside down on a firebrick, and flux the underside. And place a piece of solder between the setting and the ring shank. Secure your ring shank in a pair of reverse action tweezers, solder the two elements together, quench, and repeat with the other two rings. Be mindful about the placement of your settings on your ring shanks. If you want your three gemstones to nest together, you may need to solder one or two slightly off-center. Once all your rings are soldered together, pop them in the pickle. Once pickled, check that all your rings sit together in the way that you would like, and pop them all into a barrel polisher for at least a solid hour to make them super shiny. Once suitably tumbled, your rings should be shiny and ready for setting. Secure the first of your rings in a ring vise, and try your stone for size. For this design, I want to raise the cabochons off the backplate, so that the settings have more depth. There are so many ways to do this, but I like to use a length of wire in the same metal as our rings. Use pliers to form it so that it has the same shape as your stone, and fits snugly inside your setting. Snip off any excess wire, make sure it's flat, and file the ends so that they come together. Place your wire inside your setting, and pop your stone back in. If any of your settings need filing down at all, do that until you're happy with the height of your setting in relation to your stones, and you're finally ready to set. Use a pusher to push the metal over all the way around your gemstone, before burnishing to finish. And obviously, repeat with your other two stones. And voila! Burst forth into the sunshine, breathe a huge sigh of relief, and enjoy your trio of beautifully sparkling gemstone stacking rings. Thanks for watching, don't forget to like and subscribe, and hopefully see you all again very soon.