One of my newest designs for the ACC Baltimore Craft show was the Garnet Accented Cocktail Ring with garnets and pink rhodonite crushed gemstone inlay. I wanted to recreate this ring but in blue with lapis lazuli and aquamarine.
The first step was gathering and measuring all my materials before I started fabricating the ring. I cut the shank (the band that goes around your finger) and the square stock bezel wall to their correct length. I also cut my "bezels" for the aquamarines from 8-gauge silver wire into disks so they are uniform in shape and size.
I formed and soldered the shank and bezel wall into rings and then soldered the round bezel to the silver sheet. While that was being cleaned, I textured the shank with for added interest and shine. Next, I soldered the 8-gauge disks into recesses of the square stock and soldered the rest all together.
I tumbled the ring in a steel shock tumbler for an hour to polish and strengthen the sterling silver.
The next day, I inlaid the crushed lapis lazuli in the recesses. I use a jeweler’s grade fine jewelry resin to set the crushed gemstones in their place. The resin needs to cure overnight.
Next day, with a series of files and sandpaper, I smoothed out the inlay so it’s ready for stone setting. Here is the ring in thermo-loc fixturing compound to hold the ring in all directions while I stone set. With various stone setting burs and hand tools, I flush set seven 2mm natural aquamarines into the surface of the ring.
After stone setting, I buffed the surface and did my final polishing. Voilà a finished ring!
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