Ring a Month 2019 - May

 

This is my May ring for the Ring A Month Challenge 2019. 

For May the theme set was

MIXED, which meant using at least two materials in the ring.

I'd been cogitating on this all month, an assortment of ideas going through my mind, and then when I got as far as making it on 30th May I went back to the very first idea I'd had!!! I should of just gone for it at the start of the month!! lol 😊

This month I tried to get back to using up some ready made pieces that I have laying around as this was my personal challenge to myself for the whole year. 

I found a rather iffy looking plain ring band (it was my ring size though - how convenient!! ;) ) and a tiny little textured disc to start off. My plan was to rivet a bead to a ring. Whilst I do riveting I've never riveted a bead onto a ring before so that was a new challenge for me :D I thought a red bead would work and I found a little one made of dyed marble.

Next I made a little disc shaped piece of clay with a radiating texture on one side that the bead would be set into. I dried it on a small former to make a little cup. 

While the cup was drying I refined the ring band and made it look a big more respectable!! Then I wrapped a layer of texture around the plain band. 

When the little cup was dry I carved the edges. 

I also carved the tiny disc of clay into a flower shape, neatened everything up and drilled some holes for the rivet. 

I wanted something to go between the cup and the ring band and found a nice carved little washer already made - perfect!!! 

It would sit under the cup like this. 

I attached the washer to the ring band first...

....and then added the cup using syringe and dried everything well.

I drilled right through the band so the hole would be ready for the rivet after the ring was fired. 

Then it was off to the kiln for firing :D

After firing I made a wire rivet with a tiny head on one end and fitted it so the head was inside the ring band. At this point I was debating a little spacer between the bead and the cup. I started to have a play with options to see what I liked. 

Of course then I also started to change my mind about the red bead. More on that in a minute!!

First I added a bit of gold using the keum boo method to fuse the gold to the silver. 

Then I patinated the ring leaving the inside of the cup bright shiny silver. 

There was a good reason for this!! 

Earlier when playing around with how the ring would look I picked up a transparent amber bead that was laying around - and immediately I knew it just had to be!!! ;) 

The red looked nice....

.... but WOW - the amber bead just totally popped!!! 

This lovely bead is a handmade glass bead made by the super talented Laura Sparling - Beads by Laura :D

All that was left to do was to rivet the bead and little flower into place. 

I prefer to use a ball headed hammer for riveting and I placed the ring onto a little

anvil to support it while gently tapping the trimmed wire down so it blended into the centre of the flower and held everything firmly together. 

And here is the finished ring...

When the light hits the bead the gold reflects through it and the silver shines amber colours around it making it look like the amber is almost liquid at times. It's not easy to show it in the photos very well!!

I think it's a very happy ring 😊

Here's a little video to try to show the effect better...

I've called the ring

Liquid Amber...

...but my good friend Ann Davis says it looks almost like jelly - and I think she's right!! lol

Until next time...

Have fun!!

Joy x