What’s New: The Golden Runes
One of the wonderful, terrible things about having extra time, and an Instagram account, is Village Silversmith Cabs. Ugh, they're killing me with all of their beautiful stones!
A couple of weeks ago, a parcel of freeform, rose cut garnet cabs (and don't tell my husband, but a fair few other parcels) arrived via post. As soon as my son spotted this stone, he knew he wanted it and asked if I'd make him a ring. Yes, please ; )
We sat together, sketched, and talked about designs. Working collaboratively with someone to help bring their ideas to life is one of my favorite things! Should the alignment of the stone be horizontal, vertical or slightly askew? What about the band, should it be one band, two band or more? Should it be a wide band, should it have some sort of texture? So many questions!
As you can see, he decided upon a vertical alignment for his stone with a wide band. He also chose a series of runes to be stamped inside and out. Every ring that I've ever made for him has a secret message hidden inside, so it made me happy that he would do the same.
Since we're all working from home and many, if not most students don't have a Metals Studio from which to work, I decided to construct this ring using the most basic of tools. A jeweler's saw, bench pin, needle files, sandpaper, a ring mandrel, metal stamps (optional), simple hand tools and a butane micro torch from Home Depot.
This is what happened next...
The bezel is constructed from 22g jewelers brass and a scrap of 22g textured sterling sheet. I chose to use 14k solder on the bezel so the seam wouldn't show, and used hard silver solder to attach it to the backplate. The band is 18g sterling and it's stamped on both sides while still flat. I had never used a butane micro torch to construct a piece, so I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I was able to solder all four seams with hard solder. Easy-peasy!
Note: You may have noticed that the band is not round, but a rounded square. I chose to do this for two reasons. The first is that I didn't want the stone to sit up too high and get caught on things, which is why I cut the ends of the band to match the contour of the bezel. Once this is done, one runs the risk of distorting the bezel if the band is rounded out. The second reason is that my sons knuckles are wider than the base of his fingers. A rounded square or finger shaped band helps to prevent the ring from spinning around.
Even though this ring was a collaboration, I still had to add a surprise ; )
Using an ancient Korean technique, called Keum-Boo, I applied a very thin layer of 24k gold foil to the inside of the ring. In this process, the sterling silver is depletion gilded to bring up a fine silver layer so the 24k gold can exchange molecules with the fine silver when burnished over heat to create a permanent bond. Magic, right?!
Things always looks a mess before sanding and polishing!
I knew we wanted to darken the outside of the band with liver of sulfur. Although 24k should not accept a patina, I've seen it happen enough times that it isn't worth taking a chance. Plus, I wanted the inside of the bezel to stay bright and shiny to reflect light back into the stone. So, Dykem is applied as a resist, to prevent the gold and inner bezel from becoming darkened by liver of sulfur. Sharpie will also work as a resist.
The ring is placed into a warm liver of sulfur solution, which causes the metal to turn a beautiful gunmetal grey. Unfortunately, it stinks!
The Dykem is easily removed using denatured alcohol. As you can see, it makes a great resist! A soft brass brush with a little soap and water give the piece a nice glow.
It's hard to see from the photos, but there are a few areas where little bits of gold foil were applied to the edges of the band. I decided to leave them, to tease the viewer.
A little sneak peek.
For those that may be wondering...
Why use a 22g brass bezel for this beautiful sliver of a stone?
I wanted the golden bezel to create a wide line to frame the stone. To set the stone in place, I used a technique called upsetting. The bezel is struck from the top, as opposed to pushing it from the sides and over the stone. By striking it from the top, the metal is compressed and flares in the same way a wire rivet mushrooms. The metal that is on the stone side applies just enough pressure to hold the stone in place. The extra material on the outside can be filed away or left in place.
I'm happy to report that my son loves his new ring!