Learning to Make My First Solo Ring

Making a Filigree Ring – Alone!

After my first class and having all purchased my tools, I started my first solo ring project. I spent some time on the internet (there are a lot of really cool step-by-step projects out there!), and managed to find a set of PDF instructions about how to make a filigree ring, courtesy of the Mt Gravatt Lapidary Society Inc, in Australia

(08/04/2021 Update: Unfortunately, I can no longer find the instructions on-line. Perhaps I will get in touch with them, sometime. If anyone from Mt Gravatt Lapidary Society Inc is reading, I’d love to work on something with you! Or I will make my own design and do a video tutorial for you all – watch this space!)

It looked fairly simple, so I decided to give it a go and make one for my sister’s birthday.

Following the step-by-step instructions, I found it hard to make all of the scrolls look consistent – I managed to make all the wires roughly the same length, but all the scroll sizes were different!

Soldering is All About Practise, Practise, Practise!

I struggled with making this ring as it’s quite fiddly to hold everything together and then solder it. I learnt that using binding wire really helps – but use the absolute minimum binding wire that you can get away with! In my case, I’m using iron binding wire. I’ve now learnt the hard way that iron reacts with the pickle, leaving a pinkish mark on the silver. By using less binding wire, you reduce the amount in the pickle and thus, the discolouration effect.

Also, don’t forget the ring is in the pickle…

Anyway, back to the ring… if you want soldering practice, this is the ring to do it! The joins are in slightly awkward positions, making it challenging to solder. (I made this ring a second time, and learnt that trying to position the ring so that the solder drips vertically into the join rather than from a flat position gives a better, cleaner join. If you look at the picture of the ring, instead of putting the solder on the top of the ring (e.g. the side that would be resting on the top of your finger), you place the rings flat. Then add solder on the inside of the scrolls, so that the solder can drip into the join.

Working on this project, I also discovered that you can never take too much time over making the metal surfaces perfect – if you’ve been to a jewellery class, then you will have heard the mantra “solder doesn’t fill gaps”.  Yes, that’s what I saw put into practice on this ring, and now I finally understand!

And Here It Is…

So, this is my first attempt at this ring…

It took a full day and like I said, the scrolls aren’t too even.  But it sort of looked like the picture and I’m really quite pleased with it.

A Few Weeks Later

At my husband’s insistence, I tried to make the same ring again a few weeks later. He says it’s good practice! He’s probably right!

This time, I tried really hard to make sure that I used the same point on my round nose pliers, to make the scrolls even.  But… with the best will in the world… disaster struck! While trying to make all my join marks perfect, I used a little too much force with my pliers and the whole ring got squashed! Noooooo! Undeterred, I took a torch to the ring and managed to take all the solder out.  After some filing, I managed to salvage the ring (albeit, with some dinks in the wire…).  I have to say, after this attempt, I felt much more confident about my soldering.  Here is the second attempt:

All in all, not too bad. The scrolls are still uneven – I’ve decided on my third attempt, I will mark up my pliers so that I place the wire in the same spot every time.  I’ll update when I’ve done it!

I think this is a really great practice project and I’m so proud of the ring I made, I wear it all the time!