Today I got to start on setting my stone for my first ring. I took a turquoise bead that I had and had one of the jewelers (Arturo) teach me how to grind it down so that it was a cabochon. So I ground my bead down until it was half the thickness it had initially been. Then I took some of the silver in my box and melted it down to make a bezel wire. The bezel making process takes about two hours to do because it is to tedious. You have to work the glob of silver into a wire by forcing it through an electric mill. Then after about three runs through the mill you have to anil the wire so that it is still maleable. Silver gets very hard from bending and shaping so you have to make it soft so that it won't crack when you work with it. So getting the wire down to the width and length that I needed took me about two hours but it got done. Then I had to fit the wire around the turquoise cab and solder it (without the stone in it of course). So, now I have my bezel, and tomorrow I will solder my bezel onto a back and solder that onto a half round band. Then I will set my stone in the bezel and bend the edges around it to hold the stone in. Then VOILA we have ourselves a ring, of course after I file, sand, burnish, and polish it (all of which takes about half a day). Who knew that making jewelry took so long?!