Rings

I made these stacking rings as an experiment, and I'm now debating whether to offer them on Etsy because they took me forever to make! They make up a total of eight individual rings in different gauges, and look like a thicker ring when stacked together.

Drooling

I'm usually not one for modern minimalist jewelry, but I am in love with these rings from Conroy & Wilcox. They have an organic, handcrafted quality about them that really draw me in. I especially love their gray diamonds, particularly the rose cuts, which beautifully mixes vintage and modern together (admittedly, I love rose cut diamonds). Usually when you think of gray diamonds, you think of poor quality diamonds with lots of inclusions. But with these rings, the inclusions just make them look extremely unique and super special, and become part of the rings' charm.

Louise ring.

Bedford ring - gray rose cut diamond.

Aquamarine cabochon ring.

Gray diamond ring.

Tumble cut amethyst ring.

I'm on Wists

Have you guys heard of Wists.com before? It's apparently a social shopping website where you can bookmark stuff you find online and make weblists out of them to share with everyone. I was excited to find out that the Alice ring made it onto someone's weblist.

Lessons learned

Two rings, one set with a red coral and the other with a pink coral. The bands are made from 12g sterling silver wire. At first, I was pleased with the results. And the photographs came out well. But after looking more closely, I realized the gauge I used for the band was too thick for rings that are meant to look delicate. Also, my soldering job isn't as good as I initially thought, owing to the fact that thick wire requires more solder. Some parts underneath the bezel cup got a little bit globby, requiring extensive filing.

I'm a little annoyed that I seem to have wasted the cabochons, but I'll chuck it to a learning experience and hopefully the next rings will be even better because now I know what works and what doesn't. After all, a little experimentation never hurt any (except maybe for Dr. Frankenstein).

Productive

I had an extremely productive day at my workbench today, making a total of six circle links and three bezel rings. Here they are, fresh from the tumbler. A lot of the designs I'm playing around with in my head call for these circle links, so I made a whole batch in one sitting to save time. The rings are going to be set with different cabochons - one of them is a custom order for the Alice ring that sold on Friday, and the other two will have a rhodonite and a red coral. I can't wait to finish them.

I also spent a couple of fun hours at the bead store looking for stones for a large custom order. I found several cultured freshwater pearls in different colors, which I think will work beautifully.

Shiny finish ring

Here is another ring that I finished, named Rosalie. She's made of a slightly smaller sterling silver disc, hand cut from sheet metal and and then domed. The band is hand-forged from 16g sterling silver wire, and the exciting part about this ring is that it has a different finish from my previous metal pieces.

I used my new tumbler for the first time with this (plus a few others), so instead of a satin finish like previous pieces, this ring has a super glossy high shine.

"Rosalie" is available in size 5 1/2 in my Etsy shop.

LOVE ring

I've had the design for this ring in my head ever since I finished the matching earrings over the summer, but I wasn't sure it would work out. Finally I got the idea of inverting the dome and stamping the letters on the "dip" part of the dome, if you will, so it wears better. And I think it worked.

I almost had fifty heart attacks while making this ring because it was very stubborn and kept fighting me, but I finally wrestled it into submission and showed it who is boss. This required a very delicate, careful hand. My torch definitely got a workout with this piece.

I'm thinking I want to make one for me as well - it looks really cool on the finger!

The LOVE ring is now available in size 6 in my Etsy shop.

New ring

Well, this is a pretty momentous day because not only am I finally selling a ring for the first time, but I actually managed to tear myself away from reading the manuscript of Midnight Sun for a bit to head down to my workbench, fire up the torch, and make not one, but two rings ready for sale. I figured I've neglected the shop long enough while worshiping at the altar of Edward Cullen.


Here is the first one, named Alice (heh heh - you probably won't be terribly surprised to find out that she is named after one of the characters from Twilight). Featuring a nicely sized lemon chrysoprase cabochon - 10mm, to be exact - in a bezel setting, sitting atop the hand-forged band made of 12g sterling silver wire.

The chrysoprase is a really pretty color, a pale yellow-green. She is available in size 6, but if you'd like this in a different size, I can custom make it for you for an additional 2 weeks.

Amethyst ring

Here is an amethyst bezel ring that I finished today. It's very slender and petite, the amethyst measuring at 6mm. I used 16g sterling silver wire for the band. I think it turned out pretty well!



I'm not quite ready to sell this ring yet, though once I do, it will be a custom order since the size will need to be specified for each customer. The sizing is mainly the reason I am not offering this yet. It took me several tries to get the correct size for my finger, even though I did all the things I was supposed to do in order to get accurate measurements. So, I need to practice some more.

But I am looking forward to making more of this!

Another bezel ring

Hee hee. I couldn't resist taking more pictures of my wedding set, especially because I have been living and breathing bezel settings for five weeks.

I for sure did not make these. Someday, though, I hope my skills will be good enough to fabricate something similar. I think these are hand-cast, so my technical skills are not yet up to par.

Bezel ring

Today was the last day of metalsmithing class, and I completed my bezel ring! I had serious doubts about whether I would be able to, but the old elbow grease came through.

I have to admit - this was hard work. At one point I got into a tight spot and my teacher had to help me get out of it. As you can see, it's not completely perfect (the bezel cup is soldered on a little crookedly), but I think it's pretty decent for a first try.

Talk about blood (literally), sweat (literally), and tears (figuratively).

Class progress report

This is what I did in class today. I finished that blasted ring. Yay! Well, sort of. I still need to put the final touches on it (buffing, etc). But for the most part the structure, which was giving me so much trouble the last time, is pretty much done.


Then I started on stone setting. Here is the start of my bezel cup to put that pretty green chrysoprase cabochon in. Predictably, I had problems, not the least of which was shredding my fingers into a bloody mess three times with the jeweler's saw, giving myself a nasty scrape on my shoulder courtesy of the bench pin, and almost setting my hair on fire with the torch.

As my friend Marnie likes to say: good times.

More wire rings

Getting better at this.

Rings made of aquamarine, serpentine, aventurine, turquoise again, and moukite.

Wire rings

It's been a long while since I learned how to make wire rings. I haven't attempted to make any since learning how because I couldn't get a hold of the proper equipment. But, they had mandrels for sale at the gem show this past weekend so I finally tried my hand at the rings again.

As you can see, I still need lots and lots and lots of practice. This one is rather messy. I used practice wire for this; however, recently experimenting with different gauges of sterling and gold-filled has gone a whole lot better for me. I'll post pictures of those efforts next time.

The turquoise ring isn't too too bad, I like how it has a sort of bezel look. I think this shape of stone is good for wire rings.



It may be a little while before you see wire rings offered at my shop, but I have a lot of beautiful gemstones and beads ready and waiting to be used!

Just like crack

For a while now I've been a longtime lurker at this diamond and gemstone site called Pricescope (the forum Show Me the Ring has all the good pictures of the diamonds). It started out as a site for educating people who are in the market for diamonds, but the forums soon evolved into a place for women to show off their sparklies. The "Show Me the Ring" forum is like crack, I tell you - I have to check it out almost every day.

So it was inevitable that I too wanted to post pictures of my wedding rings, but I could never take good enough close ups as the pictures always came out blurry and crappy. When I got the new camera I started playing around and, surprisingly, the pictures came out well enough that I may be able to post them.

Here are my Art Deco filigree engagement ring and diamond eternity band, taken with the super macro setting:



And here is the requisite Pricescope "hand shot":


Pricescope, here I come!

The magpie's reward

So after much careful thought and deliberation worthy of the most rigorous scientific research project, I finally decided that since I am such a damn magpie, I will not be getting a nice new purse for my reward (drooling over my sister-in-law and cousin's nice new purses notwithstanding!). Instead, I'm going to get me something sparkly.

To whit: rings!

I've been scouring one of my favorite antique jewelry sites, Fay Cullen, and after many, many hours of painstaking deliberation, I narrowed down my choice to two rings. What I'm going to end up with will actually be a combination reward present/wedding anniversary gift, so I have to make it good! However, I was prudent and set a budget (that Mr HD agreed to), and both rings are well within.

But now I'm in agony because I can't decide between these two, so you will have to help me.

This first one is an alternating sapphire and diamond eternity band in white gold. It is about 2mm thick, and I confess I am heavily leaning towards picking this. I love the sapphires, and the alternating shapes make this ring very Art Deco. Not to mention it is such a dainty ring.




The other one is another Art Deco band, but with just diamonds, also in white gold. It is slightly thicker at 3mm, and I can't decide whether I want a slightly thicker band like this or go with the more dainty band above. A difference of 1 mm probably doesn't seem much, but since my hands are so small it does make a noticeable difference on me.


Well now, I just gave myself a headache. I wish I had this problem every day.

And finally, I wanted to give a shout out to my cousin Mom2Amara, whose last day at work is also tomorrow, before she starts at a fab new job. I'm so delighted that she and I are going through the same event at exactly the same time. It also feels very comforting, because I don't feel quite so isolated and alone as I leave the familiar and venture into the unknown. Good luck, Mom2 Amara!

Obsessed

Part of the reason why I started creating - which involves playing with interesting gemstones to my heart's content - is to feed my insatiable obsession with jewelry - earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets. Collecting and playing with gemstones and hoarding jewelry components partly satisfies my urge for shiny, pretty things.

One aspect of this obsession is my love of vintage and/or antique diamond rings. When my big sister received her engagement ring years ago, I instantly fell in love with her lavish vintage filigree ring and the meticulous and ornate detailing. It was graceful, unique. For years, I fervently wanted one just like it - easily the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. When my own engagement came, Mr. Hazel Designs granted my wish and gave me a ring similar to my sister's - an Art Deco platinum ring with a bezel setting and delicate filigree all around.

Thus began my obsession with antique rings. I can't get enough of it. Even though it's been some time since I received my ring, I still stare at it practically every hour and fall in love with it all over again. But, having my dream ring hasn't stopped my habit of scouring antique shops for more, so indulge me for a moment while I post some of my favorites below.

This is from one of my favorite online stores, Topazery. It is a late Edwardian style white gold ring from the 1920s with an Old Mine cut diamond weighting .93 carats. Notice all that yummy, lacy filigree.

And this is a gorgeous platinum deco ring from Antique Jewelry, with a 1.25 carat Old European cut diamond.

And lately, I've also fallen in love with halo settings like the the Tiffany Legacy ring, inspired by this antique original from Fay Cullen, containing a champagne colored cushion cut diamond.

And finally, this one is a lavish Edwardian white gold ring from NYC Diamond District merchant Israel Rose.