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…

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! :-)

Winter Wonder Wedding tiara

Its been a while since I created a tiara. The ones I have for sale on Etsy are all a few years old. But now the snow suddenly arrived here in Denmark, I felt inspired to created a new tiara for the winter bride. As always, I worked with sterling silver, in this case only wire, but added for the first time cubic zirconias and white rabbit fur.

First I cut some lengths of 1,5 mm thick wire and run up the ends of two of them (always detail I prefer to just cutting it up. It provides the last elegant ending to any whiplash line). Then I bent them into shape and forged some sections in order to obtain the whiplash flow:

Here I’m halfway through assembly. The challenge with a structure like this is to move through all harnesses of solder in order not to unsolder previous joints. This version however, wasn’t that hard.

Details are important, even on the backside. Hence I filed and sanded the large join smooth, even though I knew it would be covered by fur later.

And here we are –in a very bad lightning: the finished piece, set with the zirconias, but still unclad.

That happened here and I must say, I love it.

It came out pretty much as I initially drew it. That is very satisfactionary, though I sometimes am happy I changed the design as I went along…

The fur transforms a very pretty tiara to something exceptional and very fairytale-ish. This is the tiara to wear for that daring woman who braves cold and darkness and says yes to her man in the light of their love instead of the sun. I am very pleased with this tiara and will create another one soon again! Want to see more pictures of the finished piece? Take a look here

However: I’m off to Finland for Christmas.

Happy yuletide from Copenhagen :-D