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A rectangular piece of thick sheet silver ready to cut. The
two rings will come from one piece of silver, the same rings
which later on will join two people into one on a very special
day. Aw! How sweet. |
I scored lines on the silver to show me where to cut it, after
measuring Clym and Val’s fingers. |
Here are the strips of silver that will make up the two rings,
cut out and lying on my bench peg alongside the little rough
garnet for which I have made a tiny little surround to secure
it in, called a “collett”. |
The beautiful blue and pink and orange colours here, are created
by a gas flame on the metal ring. This heating and cooling process
is called “annealing” and was required to soften
the silver before I could bend it into shape. To anneal the
silver, I heated it until it glowed “cherry red”
in colour, then I cooled it in water. |
In this picture, the rings are nearly bent into shape, the silver
was very thick (2mm) to make both rings hard wearing, and I
had to use a massive hammer to help me to shape them. |
Several times during the process the rings required annealing.
This is Clym’s ring being soldered. To solder silver,
I heated it with flux and pieces of solder on it until it glowed
orange. |
Both rings on a steel block; Clym’s in the background,
having been hammered, and Val’s in the foreground, the
metal that surrounds the garnet is being checked and adjusted
in order to fit it to the shank of the ring. |
The rings assembled, after hammering and texturing ready for
blackening and polishing.
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The rings after blackening. I blackened them to show up the
hammering indentations after polishing. The blackening process
is carried out with a very smelly chemical called oxidising
solution which is bright yellow and used hot. It smells of eggs.
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The finished rings, all shiny in a lovely black box! |
Clyms' Ring
Val's Ring |
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