Signet-style ring
Jun. 15th, 2006 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithThis is a piece I'm working on for my husband, a blacksmith. The inspiration is a ring on the cover of Jinks McGrath's "Rings" book: a man's signet-style ring, with an enameled inset featuring and anvil on a background of flames.
That ring looks to be carved out of wax and then cast, though, like the others on the cover, and I wanted to fabricate this one. I'm using a pretty basic technique for making a hollow, stone-set ring, one that's adaptable to many stone shapes. In particular, I'm following the article in the current Lapidary Journal, written by Bill Fretz, on how to do this using the miniature forming stakes he invented.
I love those stakes, and I'm enjoying using them for a larger piece! So far I've used them mostly for making bezels to fit faceted stones.
That ring looks to be carved out of wax and then cast, though, like the others on the cover, and I wanted to fabricate this one. I'm using a pretty basic technique for making a hollow, stone-set ring, one that's adaptable to many stone shapes. In particular, I'm following the article in the current Lapidary Journal, written by Bill Fretz, on how to do this using the miniature forming stakes he invented.
I love those stakes, and I'm enjoying using them for a larger piece! So far I've used them mostly for making bezels to fit faceted stones.
