As I was making this ring, I kept putting it on and pretending I was a super hero, and that the ring was magical! Just look at this bad mother, it looks like it can cast spells! The images and text on the three surfaces are stylized versions of the logos of the three professional designations that the client has obtained.

I learned a lot while making this ring. I sketched the design, and had a CAD-CAM company translate my drawings into a digital file. They then used a 3-D printer and "grew" the wax model of the ring. I had the wax model made into 10K yellow gold using the lost wax process, and the fun began! Polishing gold is so nice. It takes a really bright polish much better than silver, and holds up against wear and tear better than silver.

The black on the ring is a special paint-like treatment that is designed for this very purpose, to give an "antique" finish to class rings. There was a lot of trial and error trying to get the gold black, though. I used many different products with varying levels of success. While gold polishes nicer than silver, it doesn't respond well to the antiquing process. But in the end, I achieved a result that I am happy with.

 This ring was made as a gift for a man. To create the design, I abstracted his name, pulling the lines of each letter across a short, but wide space, and wrapped it around a ring. I then carved the angles according to how the lines met. Here is the wax before the ring was cast into sterling silver.

Here is the ring finished in sterling silver. It is difficult to tell in the pictures, but I oxidized one side of the ring, so when you look at it from one side the ring looks dark. When you look at it from the other side, the silver looks like normal bright white metal. It looks like it might stab and poke, but it actually fits comfortably.

Above is an antique ring that a customer wanted re-made into a larger ring that would make a bolder statement.
Left: My wax carving of the main part of the ring and in the background, the original ring.
Right: My wax piece after casting. I rested a stone in it because I thought it would make a pretty pendant.

 Here is the ring almost complete. I forged the shank, created a small dome to hold the pearl,and soldered it all together with a peg to hold the pearl in place. The small ring is the original.

Fini! The original ring looks darker grey because it had previously been plated. When you compare the two rings, you can see how white silver really is compared to other metals!

Sterling silver

These are two of a set of earrings I was commissioned to make styled after a button that the customer had. They are similar, but not exactly like the buttons. I carved them by hand from wax and had them cast into silver. I then hand finished them and treated them to have either the black or white colour that you can see in the swirls.

14K palladium white gold and 14K yellow gold.
Okay, okay. I made this one for myself as a school project. But I was wearing it one day and a jewellery store owner saw it and asked me to make one for him. That one I made out of 14K palladium white gold. I did not put a gold ball into it, instead, he bought a Tahitian pearl for it! Unfortunately, I never got to see the finished piece, but I bet it was spectacular!

Palladium white gold is made with palladium instead of nickel. Palladium is a member of the platinum group of metals. By adding palladium to the gold instead of nickel, the metal becomes more grey-white, instead of yellow-white, has the ability to be formed. Nickel white gold is very brittle and doesn't like to bend much.

This ring is made entirely by different metal forming techniques. the sphere is actually two hemispheres, that actually started at two discs. Through a process called sinking, or dapping, I made the discs into hemispheres and soldered them together. Easier said than done. Making and matching two identical, exact hemispheres is trickier than it sounds. The ring portion, or shank, was made by a process called anticlastic forming. it is one of my favourite techniques! It uses special stakes and hammers to create a form with opposite curves. The result is an extremely strong form.

10K yellow and sterling silver handlebar mustache ring. It was made for a birthday gift from a very cool girl to her boyfriend. Mustaches are special to them; it was because of his mustache that she decided to introduce herself. A sentimental 'stache!