RAW 52/21 - Green Turquoise Ring

Long Oval Green Turquoise Ring

Love the dark matrix and the long slender oval shape of this green turquoise cab.  I thought of setting the stone horizontally and make it a two-finger ring.  But then the stone didn't quite span 2 fingers.  Hmmm, ideas are spinning for future rings.

RAW 52/17, 18 & 19 - Moonstone Rings

While working on a custom ring, I just thought I would make a few more.  Each of the rings have an inner bearing, open back, and a U shaped band.  Each bezel is treated slightly differently.

Pinstriped Moonstone Ring with a simple bezel.

Teardrop Moonstone Ring with a textured outer bezel.

Round Moonstone Ring with stamped squares.

Each moonstone has wonderful ice blue schiller, and they were fun to make.

RAW 52/12 Kinetic - No Nuke Ring

No Nuke Ring

This week's Ring A Week challenge is to create a ring with moving parts, a kinetic ring.  I've never made one and thought I should.  It took me so long to decide on a design concept, but I know that I've been following the news on the recent Japanese disaster.  The reports have saddened all people around the world.  Imagine, even an economic and technological powerhouse like Japan is at the mercy of the natural elements and nuclear catastrophe. It reminds us how vulnerable we are.

Closer to home and as of this moment, I still haven’t heard from our 5 year old nephew, Rui, living near Tokyo. I can only pray for his safety, not just from the events so far but also for the tainted food chains and for the uncontrollable radiation.  Radiation particles have spread to the northern hemisphere.

My response to the ring design challenge is based on my views on nuclear power plants - we need to seriously focus on alternative clean energy.

Raw Materials - Sterling sheets, wires, and tubes.
I hammered 1 of the 2 pieces of sheet stock for texture.

The windmills spin and turn to catch the winds.

Another view of the No Nuke Ring

I'm having trouble loading the video, so you can see it on my flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkmetalarts/5572047268/

RAW 52/11 - Steel Blue Flowers Larimar Ring

Steel Blue Flowers Larimar Ring

Steel Blue Flowers Larimar Ring

A steel blue and white colored larimar set in a rectangular sterling bezel.  Petite and comfortable ring.

RAW 52/09 - Copper Saddle Ring

I've always like forging - something about shaping metal with the hammer.  It's very relaxing and satisfying.  This week, I cut this ring from a flat sheet of copper and it has one solder seam.

Saddle Ring - with patina

Saddle Ring - without patina

RAW 52/06 - My Pearl Ring

Ring made with sterling, bronze and pearl.  I'm hoping to convey movements by setting the bronze skewed from the sterling band, and by setting the pearl off to one side.

I must admit that I had a nightmare trying to re-apply a patina to the bronze, so I finally just stripped it.  I was hoping that the patina will darken the bronze in order to bring out the row of silver dots running down the center.

RAW 52/04 - Green & Pink Ocean Jasper

Green and Pink Ocean Jasper Ring

For the third ring, I used one of my favorite stones, Ocean Jasper.  It is one of the orbicular jaspers which contains variably-colored orbs or spherical inclusions or zones, found along the intertidal shores of northeast Madagascar.

RAW 52/03 - Ring a Week, Rectangular Labradorite

Here's my third entry to the Ring A Week challenge.


Labradorite Ring



Very flashy stone.

RAW 52/02 - Marquise Moonstone Ring

This is the second ring for Ring A Week (RAW) challenge.

A relatively transparent piece of moonstone with a lot of blue pearly opalescence. 

You can make out the ring band through the stone.

I kept the back open.

In this picture, you can see the profile of the band that I hand forged from a straight piece of round wire.

I sculpted out a curve on the bezel.

With the stone being a long marquise shape, I thought a delicate setting will be more suitable.  It is a US size 6 and is posted on my website.

RAW52/01 - Hammered & Engraved Band

RAW stands for Ring A Week, a ring making challenge project for a group of artists.  For my first submission, I made a silver band with hammered edges that contrast with a matte background for engraved text. Aside from the matte texture at the center of the band (which I curved slightly for a comfortable fit), the ring has a high-polish finish, even on the 18k gold accent. 

At my last show when I explained to a customer that I typically use reclaimed silver, he thought that was why my rings and pendants have matte finishs. To proof the point, I have the 2 finishes on this ring.

This design can be for men or women, a casual ring or wedding bands, with or without inscribed text. Yes, the text can be customized. On this prototype, I engraved the last two lines of Invictus, a poem by British poet William Ernest Henley. This quote was inspired by the movie, Invictus, that I recently watched.