Hammer and Tongs

Eternity Ring is complete

Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday to you.... Happy Birthday dear Pam.... Haaapppyyy Birthday to yooouuuuu!!!!

What does one give one's wife for a birthday present who has everything.... AND I MEAN EVERYTHING!!!!

Well one sits down and makes a ring...... in past episodes I started with details of the making of an eternity ring, I wont repeat all the details, but I will just give a brief reiteration of how I started and what it finally looks like.

The ring was originally to be an eternity ring with nine 3mm Iolites set in it.

I started off by making the basic ring; ring "L" size with square profile 3.2 mm x 2 mm deep. 

Eternity Ring... In the beginning

Into this I drilled nine 1mm holes down the centre of the ring, evenly spaced 3.1mm apart, in the beginning there wasn't just one ring there were three; reason being they all looked like a herd of drunken woodpeckers got hold of them (p.s. Drunken woodpeckers come in herds).

At this point I had a feeling this ring was going to take an eternity to finish......

The rings that didn't make the grade

After much trial and error, maybe just a tad bit of colour to the language the ring finally started to make the grade.
Drilling complete and a lot of sawing and filing later the settings were starting to take shape:
I had to cut a Saw groove down the length of the holes and across each hole and between each hole, then using a triangular file followed by a round file I filed into each of the saw cuts to form the facets for the nine stones that were to be set into the ring. 

The ring that made the grade

The next step was to get the stones for setting and send it off to the setters (stone setting is and art and a specialisation all of its own, and while I will learn the basics for my own personal interests  (I have set a few cabochon's quite nicely), I will more than likely continue to send my work to a professional setter for final setting.


So moving right along....here is the ring complete, sans stones, now you will remember that I originally said I was going to mount Iolites into the ring, well Pam had been talking a lot about black diamonds since the last Jewellex Show (annual Jewellers Show) and how she would just absolutely love to have one herself (subtle hint to husband who may just  have to now make something).

Eternity Ring

With the ring finished and done up with a nice polish it was now a case of ordering the stones and getting them set into the ring.
So at this point I decide.... birthday coming up what does one give the woman who has everything .....I make a swift about turn, out the back door go the nine Iolites - they can re-invent themselves in an upcoming piece - and in the front door step nine 3mm round Black Diamonds.


And off to the setter just before Christmas.......


Now at this point I was just a tad nervous as to what it was going to look like complete - what one sees in ones minds eye and what appears in the flesh (or should I say the metal) can sometimes be two very different beasts, and to make matters worse I was only going to see the ring complete for the first time the day before Pam's birthday - No Pressure here!!!, All you control freaks out there can relax - yes I heard a gasp or two; I did make contingency plans just in case of a disaster.


Today the 15th January 2012, I gave Pam her completed ring for her birthday....

Completed ring

Ring being modelled by Pam

As Shakespeare said "Alls well that ends well...