My sister asked me to make her a new ring – very simple silver ring band. One solder join, no complications. Sounds like a nice easy way to get back into making jewellery, after my last disheartening disaster into mokume gane! I guess I should have learned to walk before trying to run!
And it wasn’t easy to restrain myself – before settling down to make the ring, I’ve already looked at texturing and flush setting stones! Before realising that I really can’t flush set a stone yet… Luckily, I didn’t let my usual gung-ho attitude take over!
I’ve used a piece of sterling silver D-wire and measured out the right length (see my post: How to Measure Wire to Make a Simple Ring for instructions on how to do that!):
Simple, eh?
Next, I filed the ends to get them nice and straight, so that I could line them up flush to join the ends. After a lot of fiddling around with the ends to get them lined up just right, I soldered together using some hard solder (don’t forget the flux!). After pickling the ring, I ended up with this:
Nearly there! I popped the ring onto my ring mandrel, and bashed away with a nylon mallet (to avoid marking the metal). Remember to turn the ring over every so often, as the ring mandrel has a gradient. (This has to be one of the easiest rings I’ve ever made – except once again, I over-estimated how much metal I needed, so I had to cut a piece out, re-solder and re-shape! Oh well, live and learn…)
After a bit of elbow-grease to polish up the ring, voila!
My sister was pretty happy with it, and so was I. I guess it’s true, sometimes simple is better!
The simplest of jobs always come a cropper! š
It happens to me everyday being a jobbing jeweller.
Don’t let it dishearten you, thats how you learn.
Thanks for the encouragement š and also for sharing my post š
It’s amazing how much I have learnt over the last 6 months or so! Just have to take care not to run before I can walk!
Reblogged this on Mark Bowden's Jewellery & Silversmithing Classes.
Hey there! I am aware this is notably off-topic however I
had a need to ask. Does owning a well-established blog such as yours have a lot of work?
Iām brand-new to blogging however I really do write in my diary everyday.
Iād want to start a blog so I can share my own experience and thoughts on the web.
Please let me know if you have any guidelines or methods for brand new aspiring
web log owners. Thanks!
Hello,
Sorry for a delay in replying. I’ve gone a bit quiet since having my baby, much to my embarrassment.
I treat my blog like a diary. This one is very specific to jewellery, and I don’t go off-topic. I also find that a lot of pictures help, and these can show up in google search, so useful to direct people to your blog. I also think the right tagging,and signing up to the right forums related to your blog help to make people aware of your blog. Final thing I would say is to include factual information, not just opinions/experiences/thoughts, as it helps to back up what you’re saying.
Good luck!