My First Custom Order

About a month ago, one of my close friends told me about his buddy who wanted a custom ring for his girlfriend, which included a couple small stones that were her birthstone and those of her closest family. 

They wanted a wire wrapped ring in a size 7, and even though I knew how to wire wrap, I had never done it extensively before so this was a first for me. 

This is what I had to work with 

First thing I did was a couple of sketches to give my client an idea of how the ring is going to look. Usually with stones, designers use prongs or a bezel setting, and they have access to tools that help cut and polish stones to perfection. Since I had neither of those options I decided to hold the rocks together by sandwiching them between wire frames. 

My client was very happy with this sketch so far, so I began the process of making the ring.

I followed my sketches, and was able to easily get the first four stones to stay, the last one was a little too thick and I had to do some risky hammering, hoping to now fracture the gem too much. It was a heart stopping moment, but I was able to do it and carry on with the design. 

The final moments of the ring where I attached the ring band, and started to do the most intricate wire wrappings all around the frame to hold it together. In the end, it came out sturdy and beautifully, and I really surprised myself. It was my first intricate wire wrapping custom order, and proved to myself that I can do anything, and believe me I was having doubts midway into the project. 

Not bad right? I don't know if I'll ever do something like this, but it was great to find out that I could. 

My client and his girlfriend were absolutely happy, and the fit was perfect. Yay! 

Thank you for reading this post and joining in on my little custom order journey. 

Tricks to determine your Ring Size

Most people are not aware of their ring sizes, and unless you are involved in the business of making rings, you might not ever see the need to find out. Professionals use a special set of steel gauge rings, which typically looks like this:

 

But since most of us don't possess one, I'll help you figure out your size using other conventional methods. If you have a printer, try out this print-out from Zales. It's actually really accurate and easy to use:
http://images.zales.com/images/popups/zales_ringsizer.pdf

Another method would be to take a piece of string or paper and wrap it around the base of your finger, mark it, or get a friend to help. Then use this Table to determine your size:




Still don't know your ring size? Well you can use the "Friend Method" which works in several different ways.
1) Ask a friend if he or she knows their ring size and try on a ring of theirs. If one happens to fit, then that's your ring size.
2) Compare hands to your friend's. The average women's size is about a 7 or 6. If you know for a fact that your hands might fall into the average category, then it's safe to assume that those might be your sizes. If you have smaller hands, and you'll know this as a fact because people tend to mention how tiny your hands are, then you'll be in the 5 - 4.5 range.

I hope this helped with finding out your ring size. And remember to keep in mind that your fingers tend to swell depending on the time of month or time of day.
Happy Sizing =]

Fox Ring

So I ordered a fox mold off a seller on Etsy. I could not wait to test it out! So here are the results:

So I used Black Polymer Clay for the molding substance, 18 gauge wire for the ring form and a file to even the edges out. I can't wait to try it out with metal clay!