Methods of Heating your Shellac for Gemstone Setting - 19 photos

 There are many techniques for 'holding' a clasp or a ring in shellac, what heating processes are involved?

 

 I hope that in this essay, I will endeavour to uncover many problems and explain with 'photos and text' how it's being done.

 I just saw a video on YouTube on using shellac, there wasn't one word spoken or photos presented, just music. In this tutorial-essay blog I explain with words & photos. 

So let's now get started!

 

 The heating torch should be put on the 'lowest, flame level'. The heat should only warm the flakes of shellac, but never allowing any 'bubbling' of the shellac. 

If you see it bubbling, STOP and discard that burned shellac, its of no use to you now!

 This is the granulation viewing of the "Flake Shellac", as it appears in many tool-suppliers across Canada. 

    Please read this essay note before you start heating the shellac!!

  The distance from the shellac stick and the flame tip should not be any closer than 3 inches, or 88.9 mm's. (I even measured the distance 2-3 times for accuracy).

 For this photo, this safest distance is about 4 inches (101.6 mm's) Let's see what happens if the distance is less.

  Here the flame is at it's 'above normal' heating range. The shellac is starting to burn and smoulder, you can see the smoke rising and this will render the whole shellac stick totally useless. I would then remove all of the burned shellac and rebuild it up again.

 BTW, don't let the dripping intense hot shellac drip onto your fingers, why? The hot shellac will stick to your skin & fingers and cause ugly blisters. I had this happen to me!

 I keep the surface flat before any item is put on it. With the still warm shellac I can, with my fingers make the surface smooth.

 The other option is to warm up the shellac and then flatten it on a steel plate, the steel plate will subsequently cool the shellac surface in the process.

 My clients' pendant is now going to be secured on to the soft & still warmed surface. If the pendant gets too hot, it will literally SINK INTO THE SHELLAC.

 =>NEVER OVERHEAT ANY ITEM BEFORE YOU PLACE  IT ON THE SHELLAC.<=

  You can see that just a 'little warming' was sufficient to have the shellac grab this item.

   I discovered that the 'heart-shaped' stone was bought after the pendant was made, many problems then arose. 

  The main problem was that the claws were too short. I repositioned the pendant further into the shellac to give me more access to the setting area.

   My reasoning to cancel this setting program was the 'depth of the stone'.

  Here is a fantastic view of the relationship of 'pendant to the shellac'. The shellac is smooth for my fingers, plus I have greater access with the stone. 

  

   You can see how the shellac has nicely held the pendant onto the setting area.

 Even after I removed much of the inside of the stone-bezel, just to accommodate the Pavilion of the stone, I had discovered setting problems.

The pendant had to be 'warmed up' again to give me more chance to avoid the next step. After a few moments, my decision was to cancel the setting and no more wasted time.

 I told my client the reasoning of my decision was that his stone was too deep. "End of story". We both felt that new claws should made and soldered on to the pendant.

 In this photo, (sorry for being blurry) you can see the distance from the 'shellac from the tip to the flame' (3 inches, or 88.9 mm's).

    Finally here is our finished pendant after my clients' jeweller did his reconstruction to the heart-shaped bezel.