Vesica Piscis Signet Ring

Another signet ring project - done.  This was also wax carved and casted in silver.  It's actually a copy of an old vesica piscis signet ring that had become very worn.  This is a picture of the original ring (worn on middle finger) and the one I made half way pre-polish and tidy-up (worn on ring finger).

The starting point was the planning, and working out how I was going to replicate the ring.  Taking initial measurements helped, as did doing a basic rubbing of the design.  The next stage was cutting and tracing the design and shape of the ring onto wax in order to make the wax model.  Here's the finished waxed model next to the original.

And, below with sprue attached before casting.  Believe it or not, it took more time and research to decide how and where the sprue should go than compared to the overall design.  Do a Google search on porosity issues regarding casting and you'll know what I mean...   I only wished I'd Googled it first instead of spending hours agonising and trying to work it out for myself!

After a short wait I was relieved to see it coming back from the casting company looking like this.  A bit rough, but all good.  No details lost and a solid, heavy ring.  

Then a lot of tidying up, filing, sanding, followed with a good polish, and off to the Assay Office for hallmarking...

Finally, it is done! 

Reticulated Silver Ring with Cornflower Blue Sapphire

This is one of my favourite pieces.  Fairly easy to make, if you know how....

To start you need a decent strip of silver.  For this ring I used 2 mm.  (You can use thinner, but it really depends on the overall effect you want, and how much you intend to reticulate.)  Then slowly, almost layer by layer, sweep the blow torch backwards and forwards over the metal, to melt just the top layer of silver until you get the desired effect - NB: we are not after a molten mass.  What you will find is that as the torch moves over the silver the metal expands and move, where the torch has left, it cools and constricts.  Bear in mind the more reticulated it is, the more altered the internal crystalline structure of the silver will be and therefore making it more and more prone to breaking...  Make sure you quench, pickle, wash and scrub after each session of reticulation.

Once you have a nicely reticulated strip of silver, carefully bend it into a ring.  This is when my warning above comes to play.  It is at this stage when you might end up breaking the strip in 2 (or more pieces) instead of a single. complete ring shape.  Just take it slowly, and ease the silver round a mandrel slowly, but surely.

After soldering and ensuring good fit, it is then time to set the stone.  For setting this small, round faceted sapphire, I drilled a small hole, then using a round ball burr cut the seat to fit the stone.  What you want is for the stone to sit just under the surface of the silver to allow enough metal to rub over it.  Then polish!

My first blog ....

Hello folks.  This is my first blog, and I thought I will start by sharing Jeremy's ring that I finished today.

I've named it, 'Jeremy's Billionaire Ring' - i.e. a ring made for a billionaire - I can dream....  It is solid silver with 9ct gold and a blue tourmaline.  Making this ring was a bit of a steep learning curve - it was the first time I tried making a wax model, and first attempt at stone setting on cast silver.

I hand-carved the design onto wax and then had it cast in solid silver.  After a bit of tidying-up following the casting process, I then soldered the gold onto the steps before finally setting the stone.  So glad, it's finally finished - Jeremy is too.  Fingers crossed the next one won't take me so long...