I was procrastinating today a bit and those 2 rings are the results
I am actually supposed to work on fathers day orders but for some reason I got side tracked
i used galery wire for the so called bezel setting
wrapped once around the stone tightly to make the setting
soldered the ends together so they form a ring
place the stone inside
there is a lot of forming going on with you fingers so that the stone sits tight but can be taken out without loosing the shape of the bezel
I traced around the bezel to make my inner ring
punched a hole in the middle
I used a jewelers saw to cut out the middle part - that is where the bezel will sit inside
cut out part
looked again to see if everything fits
traced the lager oval to make the base
cut out again and stack
now cmes the fun part
soldering everything together we moved recently and I lost my tripod somehow - its easier to sweat solder from the backside if you have a tripod and a screen so I had to use a charcoal block - its trickier as you have to heat everything from the top and the bezel wire is thin and will melt the fastest
this is the ring top all soldered together cleaned and textured
i chose this wire for my ring shank
made 2 different ones just to see which will fit better
the wire gets bend until the ends meet to solder them together to form the ring shank
this is after the last soldering step - joining ring shank with the ring top
now I just had to clean it , darken the metal and set the stone
I had so much fun with the first one that I made a second one
The stone is a Turquoise from Bisbee Arizona from a mine that has been closed since almost 30 years - I got some really cool cabochons from a friend of mine - He cannot make jewelry anymore because his eyes and hands are too kaputt