recycled ring

Since I am almost done with my silver wire, I had been collecting silver scraps and unused pieces to melt down to have for my next project. So it was coincidental, that I saw a friend wearing a ring that was silver-plated and it literally made me gasp - eek, "silver plated, you have got to be kidding." So,I offered to redo one of the pieces from my "melting scraps" him.

Recently Adam had shown us a way to make rings smaller using a hydraulic press and metal dapping block. As you press the bottom plate up against the top with the press and ring inside - it essentially squeezes the inside, shrinking it in size. The problem that we encountered was that with a ring so think, the shape can start to get distorted which was happening with my ring - making it lopsided. We were able to partially resolve the shape by taking the punch and hammer the sides. The punch which looks like a rectangular block with a circle on it was also what I was using to create a concave shape (comfort fit). Only problem was that the more I used the punch, the larger the ring got - getting me to my original problem - it being too big.

After all that effort expended, ended up having to cut a segment of the ring and re-solder it shut. Then I cleaned the join up so it no longer showed a seam. After that I spent a lot of time sanding the top and bottom of the ring on a sheet of sand paper. The simple repetitive motion kind of put me into a meditative state. It was quite relaxing and seemed to release the tensions of the day. I often feel like that when I am making something..so totally engrossed in the process - I am not thinking of anything but that particular task - truly feels like I am in the present.



After some time sanding and meditating :) I went back to creating the concave form. Supposedly this also creates what's called a comfort fit ring. After it was formed, I felt the design still needed something to draw the eye to the center..something to accentuate the form so I stamped the center with punch..it created a pretty cool design. After I added some liver of sulfer, which darkened the design and gave it a nice contract.


It turned out looking pretty cool - I was afraid it might come out being too big, but my friend Sam - really liked it. And was able to get rid of his crappy silver-plated one.