Rings
My Ring Making Story
My interest in ring Making was sparked by my brother, who discovered an interesting way of making rings from coins. I then gave it a try my self and Developed my own style and loved it. I then proceeded on from there to a different method of ring making, this was greatly aided by a Christmas present I got from my partner's grandparents. They gave me the tools I needed to be able to make rings in this new style.
Overview
My Corations And There Story
First ring
This is the first ring I ever made using the method that my brother found. The way this method works is you drill a hole in the centre of the coin and secure a Bolt through it. This then allows you to hold onto the bolt while you hammer the outside edge of the coin. By doing this the metal mushrooms out and makes the ring shape. Next, I filled out the centre of the coin until the hole was the diameter of the ring size I was looking for.
The thing that makes the style of ring I have made different from this method and that makes the ring more special to me. Is that when I was making my ring I decided to use washers on either side of the coin too allow the mushroom to be even and to keep the coin from warping. But because in the process of making the ring there is a lot of heat created, when the ring cools down the copper contracts around the washers. This is because the two different metals have different shrinking rates, the copper shrinks faster than the iron. This ended up with washers getting stuck in the ring.
Once I got to this stage I was quite disheartened, I had put so much effort into making the ring edge just for the washers to get stuck. I gave up for a while and left it. I tried freezing it but to no prevail. After a year or so I came back to it and realised I was being silly, I could just file out the centre, washer and all.
Realizing that I would have the same end result that is exactly what I did. This creates the band of copper with iron on both sides that you can see. I have worn this ring every day since I made it. But the funny part is that I have lost the ring 3 times and have made a new ring every time. So the ring I wear today is not the same as the original one I made. If you find a ring that looks identical to this then you have found one of my lost rings.
Anniversary Ring
It was coming up to my anniversary and I wanted to make my partner something special. So I decided to make a ring for her. But I didn't want to make something that would tarnish. The ring is made from military grated steal. This makes it so that its made from a bolt. I spent a long time filing this down. It was very challenging because the steal was so hard. I attempted to imprint our anniversary date but the punches struggled to mark the steel.
First Coin Face Ring
This was my first attempt at making a ring that had the coins text on the edge. The process is simple but takes time and delicacy. I started off by drilling a hole in the center of the coin then I filed out the center to make it large enough to fit on the mandrel. Then I put it into the doming press and used the largest ball to hang out the coin into a curved shape. By doing this it's easier to hammer on the mandrel. Once on the mandrel, I used a leather-covered hammer (the leather over the hammer is to prevent the hammer blows leaving marks on the coin and flattening the designs of the coins) to hammer down the edges of the coin so that they were in line with the mandrel. Then I flipped the coin over and continued to hammer it flat. This brings both sides of the coin out so they are even so that I don’t have a cone shape. When I made this coin I over hammered and caused the coin to split because it had stretched but this ring was just an experiment, so it was ok. I filled it with soft solder so it was visually a whole ring. Once I was happy with the overall ring and its size I sanded it all and then polished it up
Second Coin Face Ring
I won't explain the process again as it is the same as the one above but I learned from the previous ring and tried a few different things. I found that the larger you make the initial hole in the coin the larger the overall ring will be. So on this coin, I purposely made a very small hole with the aim of trying to make a small ring. I also found that once you had finished on the mandrel you can put it into the doming cube and gently hammer down this pushes the sides back in so it has an overall curved c shape instead of having a slanted cone shape.
Third Coin Face Ring
The third coin face ring is the exact same idea as all the other rings I just wanted to find a coin that has a pretty design. I did experience a slight problem, I over hammered one point on the ring that had flattened the design but majority it turned out well
Silver Ring
This ring was made at the request of my partner. I started with silver grains, melted them down to make a silver rod. Then drew it down into the desired thickness of wire. From here I twisted two strands of wire together then flattens them and bend them around a ring mandrel. I soldered the two ends together then filled the joint so the ring pattern looks continuous.
Gold Ring
I was given a small section of 9 carat D section gold wire and wanted to make a ring for my partner. So I looked on Pinterest for some inspiration and started forming an idea. The idea was to cut down each end of the wire and split them apart. Then have a gem on the split section. I wanted my partner to see what I was planning so made a 3D model online. To hold the gem in place I used silver bezel wire. But I didn't make it tight enough so there is a little rattle. Overall I am happy with the ring and my partner loves it.
