Ring a Month 2019 - November

This is my November ring for the Ring a Month Challenge 2019.

The theme for the month was Gemstones.

This is 

Rainbow Doughnuts 😁

Why Doughnuts I hear you ask??

Well I'd bought some super whizzy new moulds for making tiny embellishments and this particular mould makes little open circles. In talking to someone about them they said I could make lots of baby doughnuts!! lol It seemed like a good name to use!!😉

The moulds are made by Cool Tools in the USA (so they are molds and not moulds - lol) and are available here in the UK from Metal Clay Ltd  (at which point they become moulds!!!). 😂

First of all I made a load of little embellishments using Art Clay Silver 999. The clay is pressed into the mould and left to dry. Then the little shapes can be popped out. 

Then I made a flat ring band. As I hadn't really worked out my design in advance I went with a very wide band...

...then I played around with the doughnuts until I found a design I liked. Of course if I had done this part first I could of made the band the right size to start with, but hey, why make life easy 😉

I carefully measured up and worked out that the design should fit quite nicely around the ring so then I started to add the doughnuts to the flat band. I used water to join them...

...and continued around the ring - and it worked out right!! Phew! 😌

Then I started to remove all the excess silver clay...

...working around both edges of the ring first with a scalpel.

I used files and baby wipes to refine the design close to the edges of the doughnuts and neaten it all up. 

Next was choosing which stone colours to use. I LOVE this bit!!! 😊 Should I go with the small stones in differing colour pairs or..

....the same in each pair. I liked this second option better. The stones are 2mm and 4mm and are a mix of lab grown, nano and CZs. They are all fire-able. 

I drilled out the centre of each doughnut and used stone setting burrs to make the seat for each stone.

Arguably I could of made this ring using my usual method of creating stone settings, but I like that each setting is rounded on the top so this does give a different look. 

I set all the stones into place

Lots of different colour combos

all around the band 😊

I was pleased with the end result. 

Turned out it wasn't the easiest ring to photograph though!! lol

So now we have made 11 of the 12 rings for the year long challenge.

Only 1 ring left to go!!!

Have fun!

Joy x