My final ring for the Ring A Week challenge features a 10mm cushion rose cut green amethyst that I've set in sterling silver. I've given the ring a brushed finish. I fell in love with this pale green stone.
Participating in the Ring A Week challenge has been an incredible experience. At times, with a full schedule, it was hard to keep up but I'm so glad I was able to finish in time. I've really enjoyed seeing the creations of other challenge participants. You can see the entire pool of Ring A Week rings on Flickr.
This is my first attempt at a tension setting, in which the stone is held in place solely by spring tension. I formed the ring from square wire, allowing the two ends to bypass each other to hold a 3mm faceted peridot between them. The shape is not perfect, the band twists just a bit and does not flow quite as I would like, but I still think it looks nice on the finger, since the back of the band is not the focus. It was challenging to spread the two ends apart and insert the tiny peridot, yet incredibly satisfying to hear it snap into place. It seems very secure.
For my latest ring, I decided to start with the same basic components as the previous ring, solder them together in the same sequence, but alter the components and finish to change the look of the second ring. After cutting five circles and then cutting smaller circles out of the larger circles, I rolled each piece through my rolling mill to create ovals. I then soldered them together. I oxidized the larger, open ovals for contrast and gave the small ovals a bright, brushed finish. I really like the effect. Below are the two rings side by side.
For Ring 49, I've cut small circles from larger circles of sterling silver and soldered them all together to make this simple ring. I've given it a brushed finish.
I've fallen just a bit behind with my Ring A Week challenge. (Thanks to my fantastic customers this holiday season has been very, very busy, with not much free time for creating rings!) I still intend to meet my goal of creating 52 rings by year end--three more to go! Stay tuned....
One of my first rings for the Ring A Week Challenge was a ring made of wood. As I near the end of this year-long challenge, I've again revisited wood for one of my final pieces. I've hand cut and shaped this walnut ring, giving it a soft, smooth finish. I then etched my tiny hand drawn nautilus shell design into a small sterling silver circle. It is soldered to a post that is inserted and secured in the wood shank.
Similar to a recent leaf ring (RAW 43), Ring A Week 47 features an imprint. This time, I've imprinted a small feather into sterling silver. I then hand cut and fabricated the ring, and oxidized and hand finished it to show of the delicate lines of the feather.
I've continued with the snow theme for a second ring, etching my handwritten words "Let it snow!" into this hand fabricated band. The background texture is interesting and also a bit of a mystery. I have a particular strip of silver that reliably produces these textured lines when etched. I've etched a lot of silver and always clean and prep it in the same way, yet whenever I cut a piece from this particular strip to etch I get this result, no matter how well it is cleaned and prepped first. I find it more interesting than troublesome and really enjoy the effect.
Below is a Let it Snow! necklace, with a smooth background (available in my shop):
I love the delicate beauty of snowflakes, and at this time of year I cannot resist drawing them. I etched one of my hand drawn snowflake designs into silver to create this ring. I oxidize most of my snowflake pendants to show off the delicate designs, but I loved the frosty appearance of this ring and decided to instead burnish the delicate lines of the etched design to create subtle contrast against the frosty, brushed background.
I've had a lot of fun imprinting whole, dried hydrangea blossoms into sterling silver. (Necklaces are available in my shop.) For this ring a week ring, I imprinted a four petal hydrangea blossom, hand cut and formed it, and soldered it to a hand fabricated sterling shank. The oxidized finish highlights the delicate veins of each petal.
