Relics, Riveting, and Staples - Bead and Button 2010

One of the classes that I took at Bead and Button was Relics, Riveting, and Staples by Susan Lenart Kazmer. I have an incredible collection of rock slices, beach glass, shells, coins and other artifacts for which I was looking for new ways of working creatively. This class was teaching techniques that I had not worked with yet, such as sawing sheet metal, riveting, and metal stapling techniques. So the above ring is the project that I made in the class, using these techniques for the very first time.


So I thought it was pretty funny that I pretty much set my space up like the controlled chaos at my home studio. Some of the tools in the foreground (from left to right include my task light, wire brushes, bag of hand tools, anvil and pillow, jewelers hammer, ruler, jewelers saw, sandpaper, Foredom bits, and Foredom flex shaft. In the background is the 15+ pounds of stones and such that I lugged in, not knowing what I would want to use.


The first step was selecting the piece and scoring the shape in the metal sheet (brass in this case). I had a nice piece of petoskey stone that appealed to my love of rough stones.


Then I followed the shape of the stone to create a "frame" for the piece. Then I carefully drew the prong shape that would hold the stone in place, making sure that they were long enough to wrap securely over the edge of the thick stone. I cut this shape out with a jewelers saw - a first for me. Angi was kind enough to coach me on my sawing technique. It was a little difficult, and I broke one blade in the process. I think that I was supposed to lubricate the blade, but I didn't, since the class was not specifically instructed in that. Next time I will and hopefully that will improve the ease of the sawing process.


I sanded the piece, then used a textured hammer to give it interest.


Honestly, in future designs I will be a bit more judicial with the use of the textured hammer. In the end, I felt that the detail was overkill next to the texture and design of the stone. But that is a common designing mistake for beginners: overdoing it on the details.


I then antiqued the piece in liver of sulfur, to give it a nice aged quality, and worked it some more to give highlights/lowlights.


I created a wide band from contrasting silver sheet metal. I carefully hammered it around a ring mandrel to shape the piece into the right size for my finger.


In this picture, I am halfway through the riveting process. First one side of each piece is drilled. Wire is hammered at the end to give it little nail-like caps. Then the wire is drawn through each piece and cut, with just enough wire to create another little cap by careful hammering. Then the process was repeated.



Then the stone is set into place by the careful bending and hammering of the sides and prongs.

So this is an interesting test piece, and I can't wait to utilize these techniques to create other rings and pendants with unique rocks, glass, and coins.

People are always asking me if I make rings

And in the past my answer has been "no". I have done some very simple styles with a few twists of wire and some inexpensive stones. But up until this point, I have not made anything that I would seriously consider offering to someone else.

So this is an adaptation of the Ornate Ring tutorial from Eni Oken. This is a practice piece in preparation for the final piece for someone who ordered it sight unseen when they were ordering other commission pieces.



Since I have done very few rings, I needed to make a piece and wear it so that I would get a feel for the construction process and how the ring wears. Rings are trickier than other things to construct for at least two reasons. The first is that rings are very size specific. So getting the wire to the correct size can be a little challenging. Then rings have to be able to withstand quite a bit of impact and general abuse, since they are moving about with the hand. So they have to be made with a fair amount of structural integrity.

This ring is basically constructed in three phases. First the part that encircles the finger and the base upon which the stone sits is bent into shape. Then coiled pieces which help to hold the stone in place are constructed and wired to the base. Finally the sides of the ring are created by wrapping thin gauge wire around the spirals, interspersed with the sterling studded detail.



The stone in this piece is a Norwegian Moonstone. I antiqued the piece to highlight the detail, complement the darkness of the stone, plus I feel that this style lends itself to an antiqued look.

Since I have worn this piece, I now know that the final product that I will be making soon will have to have a total of four curled wire pieces, one at each corner. This ring was constructed with two. The problem with this design is that the longer sides where the thin wire is longer moves around too much. This makes me concerned that the wire could weaken and break over time with wear. So I will modify the design for that.

All in all, this is a nice dramatic occasional wear sort of ring.

Trading baubles for other baubles

Sunday at the Artoberfest Art Fair, I scored a couple of new rings from another artist who was also at the fair. Her name is Christina Root and she has a shop at www.christinaroot.etsy.com. I first found the black goddess ring, then at her urging, I also selected the red raku ring. She then picked out a pair of earrings that I had made in exchange for the rings. Artist barter is awesome! It allowed me to expand my collection of big fabulous rings.