My plan for this week's ring was to create a silver ring that resembled soft, fluid folds of fabric. However, as I worked on this piece, it began looking more and more like a tree stump. I decided to shift focus and allow it to be the tree stump it wanted to be. It wasn't an easy decision since I was making progress with my fabric folds idea and what if I went in this other direction and completely ruined the ring? I decided to chance it. I painted a textured bark design onto the ring and began etching the design into the metal. A while later, I went outside to help Mark chop the ice/snow mixture (from this week's storm) off of our driveway and promptly forgot about the ring. I left it in the acid far too long and by the time I finally realized it the acid had eaten through the resist resulting in a piece with random bumps on the surface rather than the etched bark design I intended. I felt sick to my stomach. I had indeed ruined the piece . . . although . . . what if. . . . I decided to work with the bumps to try to create the bark texture in another way. After several tries, I was actually very happy with the effect I achieved using liver of sulfur and wire brushes. Below you can see the ring in progress before I decided to shift course and turn it into a tree stump. I love the soft, satiny texture and form (which was nicer in person than in the photos), yet the ring lacks the character of finished tree stump ring above.
I intend to pursue my original idea with a future ring but for this week I am quite pleased with the Stump Ring.
You can see what others have been creating as part of the Ring A Week Challenge here.
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