Jewelry Arts Institute's Student of the Week- Mia Medak

SumoMe

22k gold with Sapphire and Rubies

Congratulations to our latest Student of the Week- Mia Medak. She worked long and hard on this ring and I’m really proud of how well it came out. Let’s talk about some of the techniques she used.

It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photo but as the foundation of her ring Mia choose to make a 20k oval wire ring shank. We at JAI love to use 22k gold but for the part of the ring that will take the most rough treatment, 20k will hold up better. The color is very close to 22k so they work beautifully together. We make it ourselves, just like we make our 22k. Normally, we take some 22k that we have already alloyed and weigh it and convert that measurement over to grains. Then we multiply the number of grains by 6% and the number that we get is the number of grains of copper that we will add to our existing 22k. We then re-alloy our gold and 20k is born. We only add copper, not any fine silver because adding fine silver would only reduce the karatage, not make the metal any harder. After Mia alloyed her 20k, she hammered an ingot and reduced it in the square mill. She used an oval drawplate to make her shank. An oval shank works like the “comfort fit” bands you may have seen. The oval shape doesn’t have a hard edge so it won’t pinch your fingers when you shake hands or pick up things.

The next main element was the also oval shaped top that her stones and twisted wire are on. She shaped this top piece like a saddle to conform to the shape of her finger. Getting it to fit just right was a process and the biggest part of any successful jewelry piece is just having the patience to keep at it until it’s right, not just good enough. You can see for yourself what a great job Mia did with both her soldering and stone setting so I will leave this here. Job well done!