Monday, July 11, 2016

Sunday, July 10, 2016

1ST BOHEME RING IS FINISHED!

Finishing my spinner ring yesterday inspired me to work into the night and set the stone in the Boheme ring. This ring was a challenge. Leslie said you could make one in a day or two .... and so many of her students have. How about a week or two? To start with, I think my bezel was too small for the stone. Why didn't I just cut out a new bezel strip and start over? No, I guess I would rather just fiddle and fiddle with it, lose sleep, swear a lot ....

Anyway, I have set the stone. This ring is finished. On to my next project.

The front.

The back.

I love the back! How about a new ring with that concho?!!! WINNER!

Saturday, July 9, 2016

MY FIRST SPINNER RING

Leslie Kail Villarreal has a new BOHEME Ring class. Unfortunately I have not been able to complete one yet ... I'm having trouble with pushing the bezel over the top of the stone. Ouch! It's my hands ... and remember my right shoulder and recent rotator cuff surgery. Yesterday I received the Foredom H.15 Hammer Handpiece and a set of tips, which hopefully will do the job. But will have to practice first. I'm guessing it's like a mini jack hammer!

In the meantime ... I made a spinner ring which also uses the anticlastic shape of the Boheme Ring. I started by rolling out a pattern on sterling silver using the rolling mill. Then formed and soldered three rings to loosely fit the ring.

Then after annealing again, used a doming punch and hammer to carefully shape both edges of the ring. That's pretty scary, because if your seam is not properly soldered it will split.

Everything worked out well and I made my first spinner ring! It's so comfortable and so cute.

My friend was over and used copper to make her ring. She also used three sterling silver spinners. This is as far as she got, as the seam split after three taps with the hammer. Things happen ... but we had so much fun! Another attempt today or tomorrow to fix the seam.