by kaytaylor on March 29, 2009
20 Rings
After a frenzy of ring-making, voila!
Left to right & top (sort of): Owyhee Picture Jasper, Pyrited Shist, Rhodochrosite, Rough Star Rutilated Quartz, Morrisonite, and in the way-back ,Wild Horse Jasper (magnesite), & finally original Owyhee Picture Jasper; Bottom row: Mexican Fire Opal, Polished Star Rutilated Quartz, Holley Blue Agate, Phrenite. . .a chorus of colors, just waiting for the right finger!
The dilemma was which stones to choose to make six rings. Because I truly couldn’t exclude any, I decided to use them all.
Have you ever wanted and elf? I have!
by kaytaylor on November 23, 2008
Horn Coral Ring by Kay Taylor
After taking a metal corrugation workshop with Trish McAleer a few years ago I found there were really no limitations to its use. I love making rings, but have found that custom rings can be a real challenge achieving the right fit. Sometimes a ring lays differently on a someone’s finger than expected, so experience with sizing and the use of certain materials in a ring makes it or breaks it.
This Horn Coral ring (fossil coral from Utah) was made for a client who loved the stone. We talked about fit and ended up using half round wire, turned inside out for a comfort fit. I knew that it would be a bit top-heavy, so used as wide half-round wire as possible. In the future I would probably use rectangular wire or cut sheet to help the balance problem. Less turning on the finger. The stone was extraordinary, so we decided to emphasize the obvious and do a little corrugation around the perimeter. Instead of just using the corrugated 4mm fine silver bezel wire as the bezel, I used 2mm fine silver bezel wire to hold the stone and soldered the corrugated strip around that, with no parts touching each other. Set the stone. Oxidized the ring and “voila” — complete.
Side view
This is the side view. Notice the band. Should have been a bit heavier to hold the hefty setting.
When placing solder on a corrugated surface, I found out by trial and error to use balls of solder on each outside ridge at the join. Solder flows up if you place inside the “valleys”. Creates too much clean up.
The next two rings are both fossilized dinosaur bone. See whether you can see the difference in the setting technique.
The ring below is a lovely purple, a real purple. Have no more of this material left, so I’m always on the lookout for the same color. Very rare!
The ring on the bottom is my own. Red and oxidized. I used small half-round wire soldered three across. Nice and wide and the stone never turns the ring.
Natural purple dino bone
Natural red dino bone
