Contrariwise ramblings

Today I decided that I would try making rings.

I'd never made rings before but I really wanted to try. I bought a ring madrel a couple weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to using it.


I thought I would start with copper for my first attempt (since silver is almost $18 an ounce these days). I love the look of copper combined with silver, so I used a silver bead as the focal. I don't think it turned out too badly:
I oxidized the metal and then polished it with fine steel wool, which gave the ring an antique look. It also gave the silver bead a satiny finish, which I think looks good.

My 17 yr old woman-child came into my work room and saw my first ring. She really liked it. Unbelievable! (Really, she rarely likes anything I make. So I was pretty amazed.) Since she was civil enough to talk to me (another remarkable circumstance) I gave her my first attempt at ring-making.

Next I wanted to make a variation on the first ring, so I thought I would add more silver to the ring. This is what it turned out like:

Let me know what you think. Do you prefer the first ring, or do you like the ring with the additional silver accents?

(If you're interested, the Flickr photostream for this challenge can be found here.)


FEBRUARY 2 EVENING UPDATE: I just listed the silver and copper ring in my Etsy shop.