Rockwerks Lapidary Forum

Snowflake Obsidian & Sterling Silver Ring (cab was purchased)
open back bezel, wears with the long part of cab on the diagnoal, partially mirror polish & partially fine texture finish
This was a sample project for one of the jewelry making classes that I teach.




I enjoy making mix & match stacking rings. Here are a few examples:
outside bands are hammer textured sterling, middle band is mokume gane

outside bands are hammer textured sterling, middle band is a forged ring. This was an exercise in forging. I restricted my tool use in this exercise to a pair of ring forming pliers, an anvil, a hammer, and sandpaper/polishing buffs (finished with a high polish). The forged ring was made from 6 gauge round sterling wire.

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Sterling carved ring with a tube set Moissanite, satin finish.
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Another sterling carved ring with a satin finish.
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Broomstick casting (sterling) on double shank ring.
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Uh oh ... let me try those last few pics again ....

2nd pic of forged ring with stacking rings.


Sterling carved ring with a tube set Moissanite, satin finish.



Another sterling carved ring with a satin finish.



Broomstick casting on double shank ring. Sterling with patina.

Wow! Great work! I can see why you teach. I have to ask, what is:
mokume gane, and
broomstick casting, and one more,
Stacking rings?
As you can see I know nothing about casting, smithing, but have always been fascinated by it.
Thanks
Dan

Yes, what is mokume gane? Need to know because I want one! LOL I like the non traditional ones. Anything unusual or unique always catches my eye.

Thanks Dan

Mokume gane is an ancient Japanese technique in which you pressure and diffusion bond quite a few layers of various metals (usually silver, golds, shibuichi, shakudo, and/or copper) to create a billet. You then hammer, carve, and other wise distort the billet. Next you use a hammer and/or rolling mill to flatten the billet out into a single, albeit much thinner, billet that can be used as a decorative element in jewelry. A lot of knife makers incorporate mokume gane into the handles of knives or hilts of swords. Steve Midgett wrote an excellent book on this technique, titled Mokume Gane: A Comprehensive Study. The last I heard it is out of print and is currently going for a pretty penny on Amazon.

Here is a picture of some other ready-to-go billets of mokume.


Broomstick casting is a lot of fun, and you need very little metal experience. You just need to be confident enough to melt your metal in the crucible and hit your target with the pour (or convince a friendly metalsmith to help you). You basically pour molten metal over a thoroughly soaked and damp natural broom with it's bristles binded together. The metal will cool as it hits the bristles and will take on the shapes of the spaces between bristles and will even burn into the bristles a bit. The top portion of the last ring is the broomstick casting. You never know what you're going to get, but worst case scenario: remelt the metal and pour again.

Stacking rings are pretty popular these days. There's not a whole lot to it, just a grouping of rings that are meant to be worn on the same finger. I usually make stacking rings in groups of 3-5 depending on the thickness of each ring.
sting, smithing, but have always been fascinated by it.

Wow those are some excellent designs. I really like the mokume gane, the process reminds me a bit of Damascus steel. This just makes me want to learn silversmithing that much more. Some day I'll find the time and set all of these cabs I'm making. Thanks for the pics.

Very nice work...like the staked set...like how you incorporated different material and textures.