flower ring with blue topaz
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I love flowers , all kind of flowers and I was thinking a ring would go nicely with that butterfly garden bracelet
Again its made from sterling silver sheet and a piece of 5mm x 1.25 mm sterling silver wire cut to length to make the ring shank. I like using flat wire stock and 1.25 mm is a nice thickness for making rings . This time i took some pictures of the process so you can see how much work is involved in it . However since I have been doing this for a while a ring like that only takes me about 1 hour .
I cut the flower out of 20 gauge sterling silver sheet and measured the wire out to 53 mm which gives me a ring size of 5 1/2 when done ( my right ring finger is a 5 1/2 my left is a 4 1/2 , yes my fingers are tiny ) the wire was bend with my pliers so that the ends meet flush and then soldered with silver solder ” easy” , You have to clean the shank before soldering the flower to it and form it so i put it into a pickle bath ( please wear gloves that stuff is very bad on your skin ) after the bath you form the ring on a ring mandrel with a nylon hammer so as to leave no marks . I chased some lines into my flower with some chasing tools , then used the dabbing block again to shape a dome , my trusted pliers took care of the rest ( bending the pedal ends down wards – use a soft pliers for the bending or it will mark the metal ) for the middle of the flower I decided to set a stone and because I am inherently LAZY i used a so called bezel cup that you can buy at any jewelry supply store > I could have made my own but again i am lazy and I wanted to be fast
The flower was soldered onto the ring and the cup soldered onto the the flower using ” extra easy ” wire solder . Quench in cold water and put into the pickle solution again
My husband always laughs when i say pickle solution . I am German , born and raised in Leipzig , East Germany and pickle in German means pimple . He finds that funny…………….and we will leave it at that
after you get the oxidation off with the pickle you need to polish the ring before setting the stone , I am using a blue Topaz from Switzerland, Polishing something that small is best done with the flex shaft so that you get in every corner . Apply patina , polish again and set the stone , carefully pushing the teeth of the cup over the stone . Polish by hand with a polishing cloth and voila
A ring