An open backed pendant is used when you have a cabochon (stone) that has
such a pretty back (or you might say "bottom") that you may want to
reverse the pendant. If you are using gold rather than silver, an open back can save on cost of materials. There are several commercial "stepped bezels" sold
for making an open backed pendant.
A stepped bezel is a bezel that has a shelf or lip on one side. You can
find examples of stepped bezels in the Rio Grande catalog. The lip or
shelf side of the bezel is placed on the inside as you make the bezel.
The stone rests on this lip.
There are several problems involved when using a stepped bezel.
- The lip on stepped bezel is very small, and in order for the stone to seat or rest on
it, the bezel must be made very snug around the stone. Beginning
students often find that they make the bezel too small, and stepped bezel
can be a little expensive.
- The "step" is usually made so that it is about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up on the
bezel. This makes it difficult to see the bottom of the stone, if the
idea of using it is to show off the bottom.
- Unless a large selection of fancy bezels are kept on inventory, it
just is not available when needed.
So, here is a quick and inexpensive method of producing a very good open
back to any project.
 | The pendant shown is just a really simple one. Just a 3/16 serrated bezel
around a stone soldered on to a 26 gauge sheet. A bail will be added
later. (Notice that I used large pieces of hard solder placed on the
inside of the bezel. I was interrupted during the soldering by a student
and kept the torch on the piece during the soldering process, just to
keep it hot. This oxidized the solder before it melted and flowed. This
is why it appears dark. This is not a good habit to get into, as it retards
the melting and flowing of the solder and requires even more heat to
accomplish soldering. However, because the solder was placed in the
inside the bezel, it makes no difference in the finished piece.) Be sure
that all the solder has flowed, and there are no bumps of solder around
the inside of the bezel. In making a pendant such as this one, it may
even have been better to place the solder on the outside of the bezel.
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Note:
Any number of design elements (twisted wire rope, leaves, or anything)
could have been used outside the bezel.
| Drill an 1/8 inch hole in the bottom sheet from the front side of the
pendant. Use any kind of drill, but I always recommend that if you do
not have a drill and are planning on purchasing one. Find one with all
of these features:
- Battery powered for ease of use around the shop and home.
- At least 9 or 12 volt for enough power to do jobs around the house other
than silversmithing.
- Forward and reverse feature for twisting wire and other operations.
- Variable speed is a must. A slow speed is necessary for drilling
silver and most non-ferrous metals.
- A keyless chuck is very, very nice and now costs very little more. No
key to lose and very easy to use!
- 3/8 inch chuck so that you can use it for lots of drilling around the
home and shop.
- The chuck should close all the way so that it will grip even the smallest
wire or drill bit.
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 | Drill this hole so that it is at least 1/8 of an inch from the bezel. This
will allow for a lip to be created all around the inside of the bezel.
This lip will hold the stone. | |
| Place your jeweler's saw blade through this hole. Be sure the teeth are
facing down towards the handle.
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 | The edge of the bench can be used for most sawing operations, but a
bench pin can be very handy. For this project the bench was used to
demonstrate that beginning students do not have to purchase every tool
made in order to make a lot of jewelry. Use what you have to make
jewelry, sell it, and then buy those "really nice to have tools." | |
| Make this cut about 1/8 of an inch inside and all around the bezel.
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| After the back has been completely cut out, a ball bur can be used to
smooth out the cut and narrow the margin between the cut out open back
portion and the bezel. This will make it easier to shape the cut out
portion and to thin the lip to the desired thickness.
A note about ball burrs: The larger and the finer the bur, the easier it
is to control. Use the largest bur that can fit the job at hand. The
smaller and or coarser the bur, the more it has a tendency to "grab" and
cut into unintended areas.
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 | By holding the pendant so that the inside of the bezel can be seen, it is
easy to make the lip uniform in size. A leather glove on the hand
holding the silver piece is recommended. The piece will get hot! This
project was finished from choosing the stone, making the bezel, and
finishing the open back in less than 30 minutes. To accomplish this, a
bowl of water was used to cool the piece quickly as the ball bur was
used to shape the back.
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| Use a 6 inch bastard file where possible to remove any sharp burr that
was created.
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 | Use the 1/2 round needle file to finish removing the burrs and do the final
shaping of the open back.
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| This is an example of the type of burr that may be created by using ball burs.
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 | After soldering on a bail, the stone can be set.
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| The back will show off the beauty of the stone. This processes can be
used for stones that are transparent. Just remember that when the
pendant hangs against the wearer, light will not show through the stone.
Aluminum foil placed under the stone, with the shiny side up, will
accomplish a better effect than an open back, if the idea is to have
light coming through the stone. If lapidary equipment is available, and if
the stone is thin enough, a thin mirror can be cut to increase light
coming back out of a transparent stone. Mylar is also a very nice way to
achieve this effect.
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Note too, that any elements of design can be soldered on to the back if
you wish to embellish the back of the pendant. This will make it even
more "reversible."
