I have made myself many cast silver rings. Just because I can, I suppose. I enjoy lost wax casting technique, and the only jewelry I wear is a ring.
I have been on a hiatus from Lost Was Casting (LWC) for a few years because of the “curse” of three dimensional printing. Much less production effort to print something in plastic than to cast it in solid metal.
Previous post disclosed that I was going back to old skills and hand caring a ringfrom wax.
The project is complete and the ring is now on my ring finger right hand. I also tried it on the left hand where another silver ring I made usually stays full time. Right hand fingers are a tiny bit larger than the left hand.
The blue wax slab was cut from a large block of wax long ago. I use it from time to time as can be seen from the several “bytes” missing from the slab.
Have skipped documenting the investment process, kiln firing, and actual casting process. The next picture shows the ring on the sprue after coming out of the acid pickling process. The white is actually how pure silver looks before polishing.
Required several more hours of hand work before the ring was in that all bright and shiny finished form.
Last picture shows the ring is a size 12 as intended.
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I saw a coloring book design while looking for valentine heart designs. It was very complex. I wanted a small design I could use in about a 1 inch diameter pendant. This heart looked so interesting I used it in one of my Ramblin Dan blogs that I called, "Feel the Love". Later on I thought maybe I could make it work in a less than a square inch of area as a pendant. I made several examples and played with the design a lot in my Aspire CAD program. It took more than two days of work cleaning up the drawing.
I next ran across a Celtic border design I thought I could make into a pendant. Or perhaps ear dangles... It's not a ring...
First thought was to recess the design into a silver bar and darken the background. Playing in the CAD, I pushed the design all the way through the bar. I liked the look!
The cross wax model was made years ago. Just waiting for an available flask to get cast into silver.
So, here are the new designs I just finished. When I get some jump rings and bales on them, I'll take a more formal disply photo.
My adult daughter, Shelley, influenced me to join her in a "popup" arts exhibit and 7th annual Crawfish Boil in Richardson Texas. Location is the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, 421 Custer Rd, in Richardson, Texas. http://www.artsincubatorrichardson.org/
Shelley produces colored "art glass" through a process of torch firing and colors of glass rods. Most items are beautifully colored glass beads. She influenced me to join with her at the art show and show some of my silver work with her craft.
The crawfish above are 3D printed in my studio and will accompany my display as part of the crawfish boil theme. The smudged background seemed appropriate for the mudbugs...
We were both asked to supply three photos of our work. So I present them here for your enjoyment.
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We make a good team. This should be a good experience.