Its a Ring Thing.

So I have been very much into making rings lately, I have had a ring made for myself and felt it to be such a personal piece of jewellery. Silversmithing presents many challenges but rings have the added challenge of sizing, fingers swell and shrink depending on temperature and time of day - am/pm, and many other situations. I like a challenge, I think I enjoy the planning of a piece as much as the creation! Anyway I found these beautiful stones, a deep violet blue iolite and sparkling iridescent mystic topaz. I wanted to set them in a simple contemporary setting that could be stacked/paired with other rings for a different look. I am posting a few work in progress pictures here to show the process:

After making the silver bands I measure the stones and get to work on the collets, to hold the stones,  yep these are the collets - not so pretty - yet!

Collets prettied up with their prospective partners all ready to get it together. The stones must fit perfectly onto the inner rims inside these collets. Setting stones is the very last stage, so first the collet must be soldered onto the band.



Before the big polish.......

After the big polish, honestly polishing seems to take as long as the construction! They look gold here, but thats the light, they are still very much silver!

Could not resist popping the the stones in upside down - actually I prefer them this way!.

The finished beauties! They can be found in my Etsy shop inthesilverroom.etsy.com  



Well hello

So this is my first post, woo hoo, and for this momentous occasion I am posting a pic of a special birthday present I made for my brother on his fortieth birthday (sorry to mention that bro). It is a silver ring with four gold rings running freely around, these represent each decade of  his life. As he does not tend to wear rings this one hangs from a leather thong - around his neck.

I think he is pleased, and he does wear it, though it is always hard to read brothers!!