Spessartitulated!

[VapidLapid]

I think I have made this ring six or seven times in the last year, each time I manage to mess it up, break it or otherwise fail. I have had to add material to the melted blob twice to make up for losses in hammering, losses from carving before a failure occurred, and from losses due to vaporization from the amount of time it has spent in molten state. It is supposed to be a spessartite ring. The metal is 999 fine silver. My arbitrary rules of construction say that it is to be formed from a solid blob only by working with hammers and other hand tools. It has to be forged only, with no parts soldered on ( solder contains copper and tin so would make the ring not 99 fine). I have no spessific design requirement. I do prefer shanks that are weighty, but tapered. That's it. I f ind that the fewer choices I have left to make / the closer I get to it being done, the harder it is for me to proceed because the choices become commitments rather than options. So here I am at this point where it is either nearly done or soon to be broken again (unintentionally) and I find it hard to make the necessary choices/commitments. Bear in mind that none of it even matters as this ring has no purpose, nor person, no reason to be at all except as the product of time spent. A few hours ago I started filing the shank, evening up some surfaces, balancing the distribution of weight and easing the inside of the band for comfort. This was hard for me to commit to and indeed, I did not file it all over. The reason being that yesterday I had heated it with a tiny pinhead of a flame to cautiously melt the surface one dot at a time. I like the blobby, active surface that results, but more than once this has resulted in the total melting of the ring. With the ring a little more than half filed, I decided to go back to hammering to true up the roundness and plane, and refine some sloppy spots of metal distribution. Also the hammered surface I like. In the depths of my fickleness I decided to try the setting with a spinel. Ive gone back to the spess though, just feel that I have to finish something the way I started. Here are some pics. I am close to just burnishing the shoulders down to the stone and being done. Any votes for any finishes or options or likes or hates or opinions are welcome. The spess is from Tan, 6.3 mm. There are a lot of threads lately about setting spesses, and the consensus is for high K gold, so at least here is an example of white metal.

 

[VapidLapid]

 

[anythingorange]

I like it! It's very rustic and masculine-looking.

 

[GemFever]

I love it! I'd wear it... a lot Unless it felt too thick on the fingers. Will it?

 

[Lady_Disdain]

It looks great. I like the rustic, heavily hammered finish contrasting with the glow of the spess.

Since you want to keep it 0.99 fine, have you tried fusing elements instead of soldering them? It requires some heat control and will result in several blobs before you get the hang of it, but, once you do, you can use nearly anywhere you would solder. I have even fused prongs in a ring with a similar idea to yours (except, in my case, I was interested in a ring that was one piece, nothing soldered, everything absolutely together).

 

[Mike R]

I don't think you should rush into setting the stone, like you said your making this for the journey not the end product, take your time and remember to have fun.

I understand your frustrations, there is nothing worse than running out of metal to file away when your trying to even things out.
It looks like you maybe needed to start out with more metal (a bigger blob) I always start out with heaps of metal and slowly whittle it away to the finished shape, you can control a file and what it's doing much easier than you can control the aftermath of a hammer blow.

I think for this the hammered finish looks good. It would look great with a black finish to the silver with the high points rubbed back to silver for some extra depth and texture.

To try something different have you thought about cutting/filing a grove along the band so that it almost looks like two rings joined together. I would probably fade the groove out as you come up towards the stone so that the setting edge stays solid.

Do you have a flexshaft/ micro motor?

 

[movie zombie]

i love the hammered look with spess! and that particular spess looks great with white metal. i'd wear it!

eta: i do not like the "blackened" idea for this particular ring. i'm not opposed to it for the right stone. or person. i don't think the orange stone needs the metal setting to be blackened and even rubbing it back down would make it more "masculine". which is great if its meant to be worn by a man.....but i would not be inclined to wear it.

 

[LD]

As you know VL I admire and am in awe of anybody who can construct their own jewellery and I tend to very much like your projects. However I have to be honest and say that, in this instance, I really don't like the Spess with the white metal. There is too much contrast for my eye and it mixes cold with warm. It's a very personal opinion but I really don't like to do that and when I have it hasn't been a success. However, it's incredibly important that YOU love it and like the effect/contrast. If you do, then that's the way forward for you!

 

[VapidLapid]

Thanks AO, Im liking it more now. I didn't think it was so masculine though as so many have said.
GemFever, it is heavy, about 8.5 grams, but it doesnt seem thick between the fingers. The shank is tapered and the inside edge is rounded as well.
Thank you Lady Disdain. I've been doing a lot of fusing! I love that you managed to fuse prongs. On another piece I am trying to raise them up with hammering. Mike, again it is a real honor to have feedback from you. I am patiently back to filing now and think I may get to do a final hardening hammering tomorrow and set. I do like the idea of blackened silver for a lot of things, but not for this. As for having a flexshaft, yes I do have one. and many other tools, power and hand. It wasnt for want of tools that I was trying to do the whole thing with handtools, just sometimes I find I can discover design in prescribed and restricted technique.
MoZo, thank you. Rest assured that I will not blacken this. I like it in the white metal. LD I know what youmean about spesses looking washed out, anemic in white metal. I think the hammered surface will help with that by breaking up into facets the metal will reflect better all the colors around it and that active, color changing aspect will make it ok for this stone. It would take me 15 grams of gold to make this yellow, which would be way overkill on a thirty dollar stone, and I do have other stones more deserving of the yellow metal.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

I like the earthy appeal of the hammered metal and the glowy Spess. I remember my father making jewelry with silver and it wasn't easy. There is something organic and real about your ring and I like it very much.

 

[movie zombie]

yes, it is the hammering that makes it work with the spess. plain silver would be rather hohum.

 

[T L]

Thanks AO, Im liking it more now. I didn't think it was so masculine though as so many have said.
GemFever, it is heavy, about 8.5 grams, but it doesnt seem thick between the fingers. The shank is tapered and the inside edge is rounded as well.
Thank you Lady Disdain. I've been doing a lot of fusing! I love that you managed to fuse prongs. On another piece I am trying to raise them up with hammering. Mike, again it is a real honor to have feedback from you. I am patiently back to filing now and think I may get to do a final hardening hammering tomorrow and set. I do like the idea of blackened silver for a lot of things, but not for this. As for having a flexshaft, yes I do have one. and many other tools, power and hand. It wasnt for want of tools that I was trying to do the whole thing with handtools, just sometimes I find I can discover design in prescribed and restricted technique.
MoZo, thank you. Rest assured that I will not blacken this. I like it in the white metal. LD I know what youmean about spesses looking washed out, anemic in white metal. I think the hammered surface will help with that by breaking up into facets the metal will reflect better all the colors around it and that active, color changing aspect will make it ok for this stone. It would take me 15 grams of gold to make this yellow, which would be way overkill on a thirty dollar stone, and I do have other stones more deserving of the yellow metal.

Too bad there's no inexpensive alternative for yellow metal, is there???? Brass???? I know there are inexpensive alternatives to white metal, like silver, titanium, steel. Wonder if you could do some heavy electroplating of a gold layer on it????

Well, this is a very cool project. I have a twin stone like that from Tan and I think it's worthy of gold, even though the price was $60. Your stone is beautiful. I like this project a lot and I'm looking forward to the finished result.

 

[Mike R]

I didn't me mean to suggest you were lacking in the tool department at all, I was just going to say that if you could cut a small channel that inlaying some fine gold wire could look good. (especially with the spessartite) Not that it isn't already looking good, I just thought you might want to pack another teqnique into your creation.

I respect the fact your only using hand tools, the satisfaction of making something from the simplest of tools is very rewarding.

 

[chrono]

I am a total noob when it comes to handcrafting just about anything and always love to see what you are up to. Even though I'm not fond of the stark white metal to go with the spessartite, I can certainly appreciate the time, thought and effort you have put into it.

 

[VapidLapid]

Mike, I didnt think you were suggesting my tool assortment was lacking. I am a bit of a tool collector so I have LOTS of tools antique and new, from an 18th century spar plane to a milling machine with tilting, cross-slide rotary table and much in between. anyway the setting just split as I was doing that final hammering. So now I shall try to fuse that break without melting the whole thing and then hammer again to work harden the metal and hope I dont mess up again.

 

[VapidLapid]

The crack is in the last picture from the center hole it runs straight down to the lower outer edge

 

[VapidLapid]

Repairing the crack




I doubt I could play easily and unihibitedly if this were gold.

 

[Mike R]

Mike, I didnt think you were suggesting my tool assortment was lacking. I am a bit of a tool collector so I have LOTS of tools antique and new, from an 18th century spar plane to a milling machine with tilting, cross-slide rotary table and much in between. anyway the setting just split as I was doing that final hammering. So now I shall try to fuse that break without melting the whole thing and then hammer again to work harden the metal and hope I dont mess up again.

Oh man, you tell me about all your cool antique tools but no pictures ...

You don't have an antique guilloche engine-turning machine do you