Rings Galore

This weekend was my Rings workshop. I went back to silver-smithing for a weekend. The workshop included two rings - one band ring and one ring with a stone in a bezel. I figured I will make the two rings for me and my future husband. :) But I ended up making four, figure that. :)  I made three band rings and one bezel stone ring.

Disclaimer : If you are my future husband reading this blog, sorry my dear, but all the rings are the size of my fingers. But to be fair, it's your mistake that you haven't met me yet. :)  Today, "Haven't met you yet" and "Put a ring on it" songs were on my mind.:). Guess what, I just thought, like Cinderella's story, maybe I will find my husband by the size of his finger that would fit one of these rings. :)

Long story short, it was because of human error. :) I was supposed to practice with copper and then make a silver band ring yesterday. But I made a full ring while practicing. The first one I made was below. I was trying to compress the edges and leave a bulge at the center to give it a curvy look. I pressed it too hard and one side was compressed and the other side did not want to. I tried to un-compress the metal, which obviously broke the ring and my teacher said, forget it as it is un-fixable.

I started working on my silver band as that was the one that had to be finished by yesterday's end of the class. This one, I tried the opposite which is a little flare at the edges and narrower in the middle. I used a round edged hammer and added some pattern to it with stamps. This looks much better in person than in the picture, because you can see a little bit of flare.

If you know me, you know that I am so determined at doing something if I set my mind to it. I started  with a second band ring with copper late in the evening but I was really fast this time, as I had the experience of making two rings already. I did not add the little shiny silver balls though.

That was it, I was so exhausted, and out of time that I had to call it a day.

Today's ring was more interesting. I picked a blue died agate stone for my ring and a scalloped bezel to for my ring. It followed similar principles as the bezel in the pendant I made last time. Still sawing was my most difficult task of the day but I guess I am getting better. I did manage to not break any saw blades this time around and I got it more precise too. :)  The challenge was the band attached to the ring than the bezel itself.


You might be wondering how the first ring is closed, when I left it open yesterday. I couldn't give up on that ring. I annealed it today and then uncompressed it again, soldered and then formed it into a band. Of course all these rings have a nice finish as I spent a huge amount of time, sanding them, buffing them, oxidizing them again and again till they got the finish I wanted. I didn't know why one would oxidize a silver ring until now. You can see the silver band I made yesterday and you can see why. It is to make the pattern be more obvious. Otherwise the stars would blend into the shine of the sliver. I was so excited, I wanted to keep on going but it had to come to an end. Hopefully I will do something more in the new year. :) Till then, have fun my friends.