Alphabet ring - behind the scenes

Ever wondered how jewelry is made? This is a quick run through of how I make the alphabet rings I sell in my shop, for those who are interested.

First I cut out a piece of copper into the shape of an oval (or sometimes I buy the blanks already cut out from a supplier) and then I stamp them randomly with letter stamps to form the jumbled letter pattern. I then drill two small holes in each side of the blank.

Next, I take sterling silver wire and ball the ends. After this is done I insert the balled wire into the blank and cut the wires and ball them on the other side. I am left with something that looks like this.

This is the next stage. I have formed the ring shank and soldered it but haven't formed it into a ring yet. Also here you can see the balled wire a bit better.

The shank is ready to be formed as is the blank.

After that, I take the ring shank and form it into a rounded shape. Then I take the copper blank and give that a nice curve with a bit of a wave where the silver balls are on the blank.

Once that has been finished you can put them together and solder them. This is what the look like at that stage, just after having been soldered together, before cleaning off the fire scale.

This is the final product. After cleaning off the firescale I brish the whole ring with a steel brush under running warm water with soap. Then I apply a patina to darken the copper. After that I use a fine grit sandpaper to sand off the higher areas, making the ring look a bit distressed, while keeping the patina in the deeper areas, creating a contrast. Finally, I apply a sealant lacquer so that the copper won't change colors or interact with your skin.

Once this ring is finished and lacquered it is shipped out to it's new owner.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how this ring is made!

Quickie #1

A quick look at how I make a set of earrings - for those of you interested in making a set for yourself, as well as for those that are interested in the actual process of making jewelry, a sort of behind-the-scenes peek.

I start out by cutting off the bits of thick wire from whatever wire stock I am using, they look like this when they are freshly cut. These will eventually be the heads of the earrings.

Next up, I clean the little guys up a bit and then I set them up for soldering. I put paste flux on them and a little tiny bit of solder (I use wire solder, though people keep telling me that the sheet solder is really nice). They are now ready for the torch.

I add the posts and a little bit of heat and this is pretty much what they look like right out of the fire. They seem a bit slanted or off center because of the extra little bits of metal around the diameter of the heads, but they will be straight once I file them down and clean them up. From here they go into the pickle, which is a mild acid and will clean off all of the oxidation from the torch flame.

This is what they look like when they come out of the pickle and are washed clean of the chemical. They are now ready to be filed/sanded, and polished to make the final product.

This is the finished product, all prettied up, photographed, and ready to be listed for buyers. If you wanted a more traditional finish you would then sand them with various grades of sandpaper and then polish them with whichever polishes you like to use (tripoli, then various rouge compounds, zam, wonder bar, tumbler polishing and componds, rio compounds, etc.). If you like the oxidized finish on sterling silver, then you can use liver of sulphur to oxidze the material, or some other oxidizing compound that is available, there are a ton of different ways to achieve the same result, it all depends on personal preference and usability on which way you choose to work.

Well, that's about it for making these earrings - feel free to make them for your own personal use, let me know how it goes for you if you do decide to make them!