Sunday, July 26, 2015

Blue, Blue, My Ring is Blue...


So this ring has taken a while to complete.

While I carved the beast out of wax and had it cast months ago, I took my time to mull about adding a little something extra. 

I wanted to do something special, so I ultimately decided to flush mount a stone on the underside of the ring. A little pop of color. A little secret something. I rather liked the idea of a hidden surprise.

I drilled the initial setting and tried out an amethyst, a tanzanite, an orange-y garnet, but nothing looked quite right.

Then, joy of joys, I found the right stone! I found a clear blue aquamarine at my go-to stone guy's place downtown in the jewelry building. (Yes, there's a jewelry building here in Portland. Building is from the 20's. You get buzzed in and everything. Coolest thing ever).

Anyway, though the stone looked wonderful, the damn thing wouldn't fit. I tried every which way to get it to seat correctly. After many attempts, I finally got jiggy with the setting bur and tried a little expansion in the width. Bingo! It snapped in last night and I spent several hours burnishing it into place.

So, yeah, smiling about this one! Just put it up on the Etsy site - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ParksAndOlive with a couple other new pieces. Have about 40 more completed pieces that just need to get photographed and uploaded, ack! So, stay tuned! More good stuff coming soon!!