Ring A Week Challenge

This year I am participating in the Ring a Week Challenge. Participating artists will make one ring each week and post it to the Flickr group. I intend to also blog about each ring I create. This challenge was inspired by last year's Ring a Day challenge. While I didn't participate last year (I didn't think I could keep up), I really enjoyed seeing the creativity of the artists who participated and I'm excited about taking part in this new challenge for 2011.

For my first ring, I made this etched sterling silver band, pictured above. I painted random marks directly onto the band and then scratched through the center of each mark with a fine, sharp tool before etching the band. The result is a deeply textured ring. While my intent was simply a ring with abstract, textured marks, I see feathers, wings, soaring birds in this etched design; a happy accident.

I considered leaving the ring brushed silver. I really liked the delicate frosty appearance, but I chose to oxidize the band to highlight the texture. Below is the ring before I oxidized it.