The Making of Two Very Special Rings

Hello there!

I hope you all are doing really great. Today I want to show you some process photos. I always have a hard time taking process photos as when I'm working, my hands are usually very disgusting with dust and nasty compounds and I feel terrible to touch my camera, and other times, I just simply forget because I'm just too busy making the jewelry!

But today is very special because I wanted to document the making of my little brother and sister-in-law's wedding rings, which I feel so lucky to be making! To be honest, many of the steps to complete these rings are missing from the photos but I documented the most important of them!!

So here we go!

After minding some measures for size sake, I proceeded to cut the band using a hand saw. I used sterling silver sheet to make my model ring.

When the band is cut. I file off the irregularities of the piece of metal and then anneal it: this is a process in which I heat the metal with fire, then dip it in cold water and then gave it a warm acid bath to make it softer and malleable. Then it can be formed to make a ring using special pliers.

When the ends of the band can perfectly touch one another, I'm ready to solder! I skip the solder step because I was very concentrated soldering the ring, but here you can see the ring just after being solder and bathed in warm acid to get rid of the flux and dirtiness. Can you see those markings on the surface on the band? that's where the two ends are soldered together and when the piece is finished you won't be able to tell where the ends were soldered together! 

At this point the ring is out of shape.

We need to form it using a mandrel and a wooden hammer to make it round and pretty.

Ta dah! it's round. But really ugly still!

It needs some major sanding now: inside of it, on the edges and of course the outer surface. 

When the ring is all sanded and neat, I proceeded to add the details and make it special: I wanted to add texture to the piece and at the same time wanted it look neat and clean, so I came out with the idea of using thread to add this texture. I wrapped the thread in the middle of the band. I also used thread because it kind of makes me think of the link that unites things, two people together: so let's say it represents love. 

When the model piece in ready, I took it with a specialist to have a mold done and also a reproduction in silver, so I can see and correct any faults or details that I don't like before committing to gold! When the silver reproduction is made, it comes really rough and need lots of love to make it pretty.

Here you can see both pieces together: the original model with the black thread and my silver trial. Here I had sanded and mildly polished the silver piece to have an idea of how is going to look my final piece.

This is still the silver piece! I haven't finished the final rings and I'll show them to you after I give them to my brother and sister-in-law on their wedding day! But you now have a pretty good idea of how they'll look like :D

I hope you enjoyed this little taste of what I do :) Thanks so much for reading it!

Iveth