HD Ring for Jeff

Here's where it starts, with a rough piece of wax.

I drew the shape on and sawed off the excess.

Using various files and wax burs I shaped the flame.

I smoothed it out and hollowed the back out to reduce the weight.

I added the band using my wax pen to melt the pieces together.

I decided to use the green wax for the band because it holds sharper detail.

Lots of Process shots today! The first thing off the top of my head since I just finished editing the photos this very moment - right after I finished making the ring itself. I completely guessed the size so hopefully this will end up fitting my brother on his birthday tomorrow. As you can see from the photos, I started out making the fireball as a separate piece before eventually adding it to a ring shank that I created. I was going to keep the fireball fairly simplistic, however after starting to carve it out I added a few more flares, for a more layered look. Once I attached the the ring I had to redraw the logo on three or four times until I liked the placement of it. After I casted it and polished it up a bit I decided to add a patina to it to make it look a bit more bad-ass, somehow it didn't look as good at a simple high polish. All in all, I'm glad I challenged myself with the logo on the band. I could probably spend several more hours perfecting it, but I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope my brother likes his new ring!

Feathers

I have been continuing my explorations with enameling. I started off with some cloisonné characters, but their images are going to be kept under wraps until I have them all fleshed out (several months from now, no doubt). I have also been experimenting with some simple sgraffito - a technique in which you scrap away enamel you have sifted onto the surface. The feathers were pierced from copper sheeting then I have layered two colours on top of each other. After firing the base layer I sifted the second colour and using a toothpick I scraped away to reveal the base colour and add more dimension to the feathers. I made these in mind with the Pay-it-forward volunteers from a facebook wall post a while back. To give all those who are not in the know a run-down on how this works: I spotted the declaration on a friend's wall for all willing participants to repost so that the first five people who commented could receive something that you have handmade. I contemplated going off into left field and creating something non-jewellery related, however as you can plainly see that did not happen.

Collana numero cinque is in the works currently...

So for any of the participants who are going to be receiving something in the mail from me... after numbering each piece I drew names randomly to select who was getting which feather. I hope everyone loves their new necklace!