How do I craft a ring? (jewellery)

1. 67

   Stickyponyposted 12 years ago

   How do I craft a ring? (jewellery)
   
   Christmas is coming and I'm thinking of creating jewellery for my girlfriend. I'm going to make shrink plastics earrings, but I also want to create a ring for my love. What should I think about when crafting a ring? I'm feeling a bit lost here.
   I added a photo so you can understand the type of ring I want to craft. I won't make it a cupcake ring but there will be some sort of animal on top of the ring. I will be using polymer clay to craft the figure. I'm no beginner when it comes to arts and craft, I do sculptures and draw each day, it's just that I'm clueless when it comes to jewellery.
   
   

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2. 80

   purl3agonyposted 12 years ago

   Great idea!  You should be able to buy an adjustable ring band in the jewelry section of most craft stores (like the one in your photo) or online.  Then you can mold or sculpt your animal out of polymer clay, bake it, and glue it on the face of your ring with superglue or maybe epoxy.
   
   If you wanted to use a little nicer ring, you could buy a ring of your choice (say in the jewelry dept of a department store).  Then either remove whatever decoration is on the ring or craft your animal to fit on to the ring, bake it, and again glue it in place.
   
   Good luck!  I'm sure your girlfriend will love it!

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   1. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      They also make some metallic clays similar to the polymer clays, but you have to bake the metallic type in a small kiln I think.

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   2. 67

      Stickyponyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's just great, found so cheap rings now, crazy cheap. But how dose these adjustable ring bands work? I'm guessing by the name I can adjust the seize? thanks for your help!

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   3. 80

      purl3agonyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes.  Usually you can just push in on the sides of the ring to make it smaller, or open in up more to make it bigger.  You should also be able to buy blank rings in different sizes

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   4. 67

      Stickyponyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The rings turned out great and she liked them a lot! 2 rings with birds on them. Thanks for the advice!

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   5. 80

      purl3agonyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Glad to hear your rings came out well and your girlfriend liked them!  Good job

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3. 88

   krillcoposted 12 years ago

   I make a good bit of jewelry, and usually do beadwork. You can make a nice ring from seed beads and very thin wire; there are tutorials on line. But for something like above, you could use a sea shell. I have made these before: you drill the shell on either side (the shell should just span the chosen finger) and then weave or braid a high quality silver or gold wire to encircle the rest of the finger. Or if you do sculpt it, you could do an animal form (kind of like a Native 'fetish', which is a stone carved into the shape of an animal, like a bird or a bear, etc.) You can also find examples of fetishes online. The problem with the ring above, it seems to me, is how high it stands, kinda awkward.

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4. 60

   Ila Castroposted 11 years ago

   If you know how to work with resin (since you do sculptures), then you can make the band from plastic resin. There are silicon molds in different ring shapes or you can create your own mold from plaster casts. You can also just shape the mold from an existing ring band.
   
   You can embed the animal topper in the resin before it hardens and allow it to set that way.

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