The wedding ring that was pimped into freedom

 My cousin is getting divorced.

She therefore has a surplus wedding band –made of 14 carat gold that she wanted me to change into a completely different non-marriage related one. A very simple and modern thing, with sharp edges and which used to hold a diamond. She lost that a while ago, so what I held in my hands, was the band itself with some kind of crevice across, where the diamond used to be fit. I realize, that I should have taken a before picture, so i can't show you that –doh! But it looked something like this one, though of cause with the crevice described above.

So, what to do? I decided to change it completely and started by filing off the edges, leaving the ring with a smooth curve, but now with structure. It was interesting to observe, how the apr. 3 mm wide band suddenly looked a lot thicker because of the edges being gone. Talk about some kind of optical illusion, changing the general look of the ring radically.

Then I cut the crevice a little wider and rounded, pushed the ring shank a little bit closer (very tough with 14 carat gold) and fitted a piece of thick-walled silver tube for a new setting.

I cut the seat for the black 3 mm sapphire that I had chosen for her instead of the lost diamond and filed the walls thin enough to be pushed over the stone.

Okay – she asked me to change it, and so I of cause changed it into something typical for me. In other words: It needed a curl! Fitting such a curl 3 dimensionally is a fiddly hassle, but I’m still loving it and so, here I’m ready to solder a silver curl on.

Of cause the name and date had to go, so off they went, but in spite of having pushed the ring shank a tad closer, I was afraid that the ring had gotten too big. Hence I added my stamp on a 0,3 mm sheet of silver, instead of stamping directly. I left the original makers stamp and the value (585)

And here is the end result:

She was luckily thrilled, very surprised at how different from the original it turned out and, this is the most wonderful part, loved how I had managed to capture her essence in it. She is right. This ring is much more how I see my beautiful cousin than the one she originally handed to me. This ring more than anything illustrates how wonderful her life is turning, now that it isn't a wedding ring anymore.
To freedom and future! :-)