Reforging wedding rings

Sometimes a piece of jewelry does not fit the bearer – style wise that is. It happens, no biggie, but downright annoying when it’s your wedding bands. Now, here’s the story of our heroes: Once upon a time, Ann Karina and Jesper, the founders of the trading site www.Amio.dk decided to look for more interesting wedding rings than the ones they hastily had purchased, when they -at the spur of the moment- decided to get married . The result was a great marriage, but boring rings, which so did not match these two interesting personalities.

So, they went online on a search for new wedding rings and of cause found Etsy. Many ooohs and aaaahs were heard in front of their computer, as they browsed though the many amazing shops here – and as they realized what a great concept this was. “Let’s build one for Danes in Denmark” they thought and so they did. www.amio.dk was the result and it opened this summer. However, the two simple 8 carat golden bands were still nesteled around their fingers – looking just as boring as always.

When I joined Amio, we got to know each other and I have later been told, that they rather quickly decided that I was going to be the one to reforge their rings into their true shape. And hence, some weeks ago we met and discussed the many possibilities - which to me was great for clarifying what exactly they wanted. We ended up with two very different rings. Jespers was going to be a coarse and dark oxidized silver band, lined with the gold from his original ring. Ann Karina wanted her original ring to be changed into a round band, that turned around a more chunky and somewhat oxidized silver ring. And so I boldly (though also somewhat awed by the task) went onto the quest:

First, I created a basic shape of two component modeling clays. Massively clumsy, but with the rings to be hidden inside, waiting to be freed.

Then I started carving out Jespers silver ring to fit snugly around the original version. I had filed the outer surface of it absolutely flat, in order for it to slip easily into the silver cover.

After casting and renovating the silver version, I fused the golden ring into the silver ring and then filed the silver ring until it exposed the golden lining on the sides. The oxidization created the final touch and a very stark contrast to the warm gold.

Ann Karinas ring was a tad more complicated. Creating the shape was easy enough

-But in order to sand cast it, I had to split it in two, cast each of the halves individually and then solder them back together.

Then I recast her old ring into a very thick wire and drew it down to roughly 2 mm thick, before shaping the outer ring. Soldering that one in place without soldering it all together was… an interesting challenge ;-) I succeeded however, and today I was able to hand over the rings to the two owners:

Ann Karinas is soft and feminine, with the warmth of her spirit lively moving around. Jespers is coarse and masculine, almost hiding the warmth of his golden center. In time, he will wear some of the oxidization off, thereby marking his ring with his own lived life.

It was a pleasure to create – and a true pleasure to finish the beautiful story of their rings. They have now returned to their owners – but now in their true shape…

A stubborn heart

Valentines is just around the corner and I’m creating jewelry with hearts – of cause. I have made a number of dainty little beauties which are neat, but I got the urge to create something bigger and a tad different. I love jewelry with details on the back or other little secrets that only the bearer knows of. And so I set out to create a locket-style necklace –or rather a kind of silver folder, which means HINGE. It’s been a few years since I made a locket and it’s difficult – you easily end up soldering everything together. However, I had chosen a simplified way of hinging the thing and arrogantly thought that it would be a walk in the park. Little did I know, that I was to embark on hours and hours of frustration where everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

But first I created the bezel for the garnet cap, sawed out the front heart and the back and the pieces of tubing I needed for the hinge. I was planning on letting the hinge double as a bezel, creating a fairly simple design.

And then onto soldering………………………….. it all together :-(

Looks neat, right? What you don’t see is that all parts are very much sticking together, not letting anything move whatsoever! I swore loudly and trampled around the workshop before sitting down and unsoldering it. I hate unsoldering. It’s messy, much more cleanup-time and just not very satisfying. It all stuck because I didn’t use any kind of block. I could also have used another cool technique which one of my fellow Etsyans advised me of using hard solder to JUST forming a ball, then carefully taking it apart and soldering it with medium solder, not allowing the hard one to melt too, but to allow it to keep everything in place.

So, what now? Well, I soldered the middle part of the hinge back onto the back part (cleanup) and though that I could just use this part as a guide when placing the tubes of the upper part and then remove the back part when the flux had crystallized and was holding things in place. So though, so I did and here is the result:

OF CAUSE it doesn’t fit! The tubes are flush with the base they have been soldered on –which is too “high” Doh! More swearing and trampling –actually I gave up that day. Next day I braced myself and thought “I’d be damned if this piece will have me –I’ll show it who’s in charge” and came up with another solution: I found a piece of copper of the same thickness as the back plate silver sheet and slipped it under the front heart –staying far away from the hinge parts of cause. Again using the back part as a guide, I now succeeded in soldering the tubes on in the position they ought to have. See!

And the hinge works!

Now for a LOOOOONG time of cleanup and sanding –and then more sanding when it turned out that I had of cause created fire scale during the battle – and then finally for the decoration. I wanted a few words of love on the inside, for the bearer only to know, and a scrollwork decoration on the outer layer, plus a little 14 carat golden heart that I had sawed out and domed. Here you see how I again used the copper sheet to stabilize IF the hinges would in any way think of moving while I was soldering on the heart.

Final cleanup, then LOS and a finishing polish and I was ready to set the cab and string it to the burgundry leather cord. And here it is –tadaaaaaa!

It was a struggle, but I am actually quite satisfied with the outcome! Now I guess I should be creating another little folder while I remember how ;-)

Art nouveau butterflies

Noone who has seen my work can be in doubt about my style-preference: I just adore the soft, biomorph whiplash lines of art nouveau. especially the french version like my absolute hero Lalique

http://www.cristallalique.fr/v2/english.html

So of cause I delve into one of the most cherished motifs of art nouveau: the butterfly. here is a brooch I made some time ago:

It has, as most of my brooches, an interesting backside:

It's Danish (of cause) and means "or am I awake?" Obviously intending the sentence "Am I dreaming?" in front of it. See more pics here

Recently I created these lovely earrings, a somewhat more contemporary take at the art nouveau butterfly, but still very nice I think:

More pics here

I have fallen in love with the combination of soft curves and a coarse structure, set off with precious stones. This one I'll explore a bit more I think -perhaps experiemnt with the ken boo guilding on the front? And definately other stones too - I have some lovely amethysts that would be stunning!

Butterflies FTW!

Male jewelry –something quite different

Most of my stuff is very feminine, curved, curled, soft and biomorph. Sometimes, however, I long to make something rather chunky and coarse, which is when I create jewelry “for the stronger gender” as I call it on Etsy. So yesterday I created this cool necklace, consisting of a forged sterling silver wire, which has been shaped into a snail. Actually there were quite a few more steps to it.


Firstly, the wire I had was somewhat thicker, and so I hammered it down to the approximate size of 2 mm, annealing it a few time in the process. Annealing is necessary because the silver hardens when hammered. At some point it’s impossible to change its shape further and you have to heat it up to a soft rosy glow and then cool it down again in order to soften it enough for continuous forging.

Afterwards I “ran up” the ends by applying intense heat to them, which melts the metal into a soft ball. When it had been cooled and through the acid (to remove any stains from the heat), I filed these ball-shaped ends into the needed shape (flat in one end, round in the other which was to be the middle, and started shaping the snail with tweezers. Due to the thickness of the wire, that is quite tough work I can tell you, and my hands are still a bit sore from it. Some polishing made the pendant come lock perfect.

Now off to the ends that were to be attached to the leather cord: I know they exist pre-made, but I just couldn’t find any in the right size (that is: large enough –and we like large for our men ;-) so I had to create them myself. I cut two pieces of silver tube and soldered them onto a 1 mm sheet. Then cut them out and filed smooth, before attaching the hoops, which I had shaped into ovals.


A last filing after the acid bath and some buffing and we were ready for the assembly.



I think it came out quite nice. It looks great as a necklace, doubles as a bracelet, when wound twice and doesn’t fall off by accident because of the oval hoop/oval end of the snail, which only allows it to slide off when turned 90 degrees.


I am considering if it would look cool too with some kind of coarsely cut gems or wooden beads…
Want it? Well, it's for sale here

First sale on Etsy!

I am SO happy! I just made my very first sale on my Phantasteria.Etsy shop:


A beautifull 14 k gold ring with a swirl of silver tugging a facet cut peridot. The buyer was a gentleman in the States and I shipped it off Friday as registered mail. A bit of a hassle, as it turns out, and I definitely have to adjust the shipping costs on Etsy. It cost me 90 kroner, which is apr. 18 dollars! However, I see it as learning money and am just very happy indeed to get this baby flying. Hopefully soon others will find my jewelry equally interesting and start buying it!