To work harden without marking the wire - I use a plastic mallet on a steel bench block.  Your rawhide mallet is just fine.   The chasing hammer is made to hit tools - you don't want a high shine face because it may slip off the tool.  A planishing hammer is to move metal - may work just fine for hardening wire, but you ...

 perhaps think about keum boo instead of soldering

 I use sparex, warm - the little can seems to last forever.  If it ever runs out I'll use pool chemicals. 

 Try Urbanmaille.com, bluebuddhaboutique.com & spiderchain.com - if you don't see what you want, email me, I can cut rings in any size you want.

Silver is a very good heat conductor so you must heat the entire piece of metal.  I would use the biggest tip I have and blast the heat.  You do not want a pointy flame, but a big bushy flame.  If you're heating from the bottom I assume you're using a tripod(?) - if so, that is a big heat sink. 

 I think you'll need a wax carver - maybe a CAD/CAM designer can do it....go over to Orchid (ganoksin.com) and post.

 If you're going to solder, especially a bezel - the glass goes last.  There is just no two ways about it.   I make sea glass jewelry (you can see some examples in my etsy store), these are my steps (which are really no different than any other soldering job): ************************************************* If ...

Setting the stone or in this case glass, is the last thing that should be done - all the soldering should be done first.  Unless you're really careful - really careful, when you solder on that jump ring, your glass is going to crack.

 Fantastic work!  I looked at every piece on your website - I love the textures & complexity of your work and your inlay pieces are wonderful.