Saturday 28 September 2019

Ring a Month 2019 - September


This is my ring for September.

The theme was 'Finish It'

This is Rainbow Nova 😊

My first question for this month was what shall I finish??? 
I had a good look around and I did have two rings that were unfinished, but as they were both really close to being done I decided I wanted to do something that was more of a challenge! 

Instead I looked around at the various bits and pieces I had and decided to use up some of these discs to make a stone setting to go onto a ring. 


First I played around trying out different designs to go onto a ring band.... 


...and once I had a bit of an idea I started to refine each disc and turn it into a stone setting using drill bits and stone setting burrs.


This is the design and choice of stones I settled on. 


My original plan was to fix the settings directly onto the ring band so I made a wide plain ring....


...then I added a texture and refined the shape up.


Then I had a change of plan!! 😂
I decided to make the stone settings into a separate piece to sit onto the ring band. This was a first for me, a variation on a theme so to speak!! 😉 

I've made lots of this type of setting before but I've never made a curved one to fit onto a ring band, normally I make them flat. 


I adjusted the ring band so the stone setting would sit with the smaller stones sitting out wider than the band, so my very wide band was now much narrower (and I have a nice heap of ready powdered clay for reconstituting!!😂) .


I was really pleased with the result! 
The setting fitted nice and snugly against the ring band.


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Then I set the stones into their settings as they would all be fired in place. They range from 2mm to 5mm. The green stones are nano and the blue are lab sapphires, the rest are CZs. 


Super pretty rainbow colours!! 🌈


I've tried various methods of firing rings with stones in and my current favourite method is to sit the ring upright supported loosely by ceramic fibre wool. If you use this method be sure to allow room for the shrinkage so don't pack the centre of the ring with wool. As the ring fires there's a bit of distortion from the weight of the stone setting but it's super easy to correct on a ring mandrel. 


I think this one is a keeper!! 
My Rainbow Nova is on my finger sparkling away as I type 😉😊


I have to admit I did make this one with me in mind so I added a nice spirally texture around the ring band!! 


 If you are interested in having a similar ring made for you just let me know!

So we are now 9 rings out of 12 made!! 
The year is flying along. 

Until next time...

Have Fun!!

5 comments:

  1. Joy- How do you get the stones to stay in when you use stone setting burs as there isn't any clay around the edges as opposed to setting them in wet clay?

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  2. Hi, you need to use a stone setting burr the exact same size as the stone. The hole needs to be deep enough that the flat top surface of the stone is level with or slightly below the surface of the clay when the stone is sitting in place. As the clay fires it shrinks and holds the stone in place. If you don't put the stone in low enough what can happen is the shrinkage pushes the stone up and out so you need to check that girdle of the stone (the widest part) is nicely below the surface of the clay :D Hope that helps!

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  3. And a bit of water into the hole before putting the stone in?

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  4. I don't normally bother with that Mary, which is why I like to fire with the stones facing upwards. I do use a tiny bit of water if I have stones facing downwards, although for 2mm I find they tend to stay put anyway :D

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  5. Oh, that is amazing, Joy. Once they are in situ and upright so they don't just drop out, the shrinkage will capture them! Thank you for clarifying that!

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