Fair trade California pink tourmaline with recycled 14k rose gold.
Now on to the 'cry for help' part. This may be a bit rambling and un-interesting to those of you who don't make jewelry, so feel free to skip it if you're in that camp. :-)
Since I am largely self-taught in the techniques of jewelry fabrication, I don't have anyone in my 'real life' to go to when I hit these little technical problems. My first question to you, oh jewelry-making mavens of the internet, has to do with polishing and cleaning a ring (or pendant) with an open back, like the one above. After I set the stone and polished the ring, there was so much polishing compound wedged in the little shelf behind the stone and it was really, really tough to get it all out. The instructions that came with my ultrasonic machine say not to use tourmaline in it, so that was out. I spent a lot of time trying to clean it with a toothbrush, attempting to wedge those little bristles in between the metal and the stone to get it clean. Finally I put it in the tumbler for a while, which seemed to be the most helpful. I'm still not sure if I got it totally clean, but it's at least a lot better than it was. How can I deal with this in the future? Should I be polishing the back of the setting before setting the stone? Or is there some other trick I don't know about?
My next technical question has to do with oxidizing sterling silver. I get great results using liver of sulfur on textured pieces, such as a floral patterned band. But when I try to fully oxidize a smooth surface, the oxidation tends to flake off. Is there anything I can do to prevent this, or does oxidation just not lend itself too well to smooth surfaces?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions. Please don't make me feel all pathetic by not commenting!
