Contrariwise ramblings

I made so much jewelry over the Christmas break, that I'm still way behind posting about it in my blog and listing it in in my online shop.  And here's another piece that I finally got around to photographing.

I made the band of this ring by fusing silver. Fusing silver is a method of joining it without solder.  The metal melts only on the surface, leaving the center unchanged.  As you can imagine it's pretty unpredictable.

This ring was an experiment that somehow worked.

I originally planned to antique the silver, but after seeing the result I couldn't.   I just loved the way the silver curliques are incredibly shiny and crisp against the background of the band.  And because of the extreme heat I used to fuse the metal, the silver on the band reticulated, leaving it with a wonderful soft sheen.

Only after I made the band, did I decide upon the stone.  I had a chunky square amethyst and thought it contrasted nicely, so I bezel set it on the band.  (For those of you who do silversmithing, I think you can appreciate how hard it is to bezel-set a stone on an uneven texture.)

I was so pleased with the way this ring worked out, that I decided to try fusing silver again.

Guess what.  It was a complete and frustrating failure.

After the abysmal failure at my second attempt at fusing, I think that this ring may end up being a one-of-a-kind Contrariwise creation.

If you want to see more photos of this ring, click here.



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