Beautiful Labradorite Ring- Metalsmithing

Hello again my friends!

Today I'm here to share my latest work, this lovely labradorite ring!

I didn't take as many process photos for this one-- I was totally in the zone!

It started with a request from a friend. This friend and I met in art school around 14 years ago... just a couple of naive dummies who liked making pretty things. Now she lives in Dubai and creates murals and art installations for a living. We were both going to be in our hometown by coincidence for a few days so she asked me if I would make her a ring. I told her that I'm really not very good at this yet but she insisted that she wanted to have one of my early pieces.

I didn't have to think about it for long... I know that she works with her hands a lot so wouldn't want anything too bulky, but is a big bold personality so would need something to match. And, her favourite colour is blue- the rich, divine blues of powerful oceans and glacier-fed lakes.

I had been pondering these labradorites (cluster of greyish stones on the right in the photo below) that I've been sitting on for quite a while, and I knew it was the perfect opportunity to pull the trigger on this design that has been brewing. It felt right immediately. They look rather greyish on white but the blue flash is very apparent when the light hits them, and the polished silver under and around the set stone ensured there was a lot of light bouncing around inside the make the blue flash sing.

I cut a thick-gauge bezel backing/decorative border and then used a pipe deburring tool to make sure that it didn't have any sharp edges. The radiating lines were created with my beautiful new line stamp.

The biggest decision was whether to have the main piece sitting north/south or east/west on the ring shank. N/S was certainly more streamlined and normal looking while E/W was different and gave a bit of an 'evil eye' vibe. I posted the question to my IG followers and ended up going with N/S.

The dental floss under the stone is there so that I can put the stone in and preview the look before setting it, without getting it stuck before I'm ready to set. I use it to pop the stone out.

I also decided to jazz up the plain round wire shank by using my triangular file to gouge some irregular lines all the way around, echoing the radiating line in the main piece. Seen best in this photo:

After all the design decisions were made and executed, soldering done, and stone set, the last step is to do the selective oxidizing using liver of sulphur to make the stamping super contrasty.

Using an old watercolour brush to apply the liver of sulphur. I do my best to keep it only in the areas that I want to blacken so there is minimal cleanup. This had to sit for a few hours to get the blackest black. Liver of sulphur can achieve many different finishes on sterling silver from gold to brown to rainbow or blue, all depending on temperature and time. Most often I just want black, but am hoping to experiment with it more in the future.

After a bit of time & cleanup, the finished product was ready!

Besides the fact that the main piece is a bit crooked on the shank because I slipped when I was soldering it on, I am super duper happy with this piece. I had an absolute blast creating it, and it's really in step with the design aesthetic I always see in my mind's eye- bold yet wearable.

My friend absolutely loved it. She bought it and another one of my more recent pieces as well. My first jewellery sale!!! How exciting! I was feeling quite emotional- so grateful to have amazing friends who are also creatives- they know the struggle of working in the creative world and trying to make a living doing what you love. The more we lift each other up and encourage each other, the better. I could go on for days about this, and maybe I'll make a separate post about it.

Here's the ring on her beautiful hand:

If you got this far, thank you for sticking around and supporting your Steemit Artist community! Drop a comment below- I would love to hear what you think about my work, and I am also always looking for other cool artists and makers to check out here on Steemit.

Peace & Love!

Caitycat