Ring A Month – August – Celestial

If only I had got my act together earlier and procrastinated rather less, this would have done double duty as August’s #ScrapHappy!!

This month the theme was ‘Celestial’

I had lots of ideas, (rather too many, to be honest!) ordering some sunstones and lapiz lazuli to use in my project, but then I received a few orders for reticulated silver pieces, and, whilst repeatedly describing the texture as moon-like, I realised I could utilise some left overs plus incorporate a new technique – it’s always really important to me to keep waste to a minimum, but at the moment there’s a particularly relevant financial issue – have you seen the current price of bullion?!

I had my first go at flush(also known as gypsy) setting this month.

Oh, but that’s fun!! I made a pendant, again using some scrap reticulated sheet, and some 2.5mm cubic zirconias. I am very happy with the result, and have started ordering in teeny tiny gemstones to use wherever and whenever I can now!

To make this ring, I looked through my scrap pot and retrieved the disc I had sawn from my earlier ring from June’s (travel) ring, firstly filing the edges smooth and round, and then heating it to the cusp of destruction. I used some old leather from my bookbinding days, and my doming block to reshape it to a gentle cup, soldering the beautifully textural disc to a ring band I’d made for an order that hadn’t completed and added a fine silver ball, that I created from a failed nose ring I’d made ( I made a few of those this month, and had a few failures whilst I ascertained the optimum length and ball size)

I wanted to use the flush setting technique again whilst I still grasp how to do it, and as it happens, I have 14 tiny weeny dark blue sapphires that I liberated from a ring I found in 1995, in Covent Garden. I’d reported it to the police, but no-one ever claimed it, so it became mine. It was a little battered, and not to my taste at all, but I never quite knew what to with it. I sawed the gold off and used it to embellish some other projects, and reserved the sapphires, the largest of which is 1.8mm.

I picked out the pointiest of them, and using a variety of drill bits and burrs and my new flush setting skill (!) set it into the ball on this ring, which I’m calling ‘Moon Landing’

It stacks beautifully with other rings, and again, it’s a ring I’m regretting not making in my size!

I’ve put it in my shop, at a bargain price, because it’s part of the challenge 🙂