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Soooooo, I finally did it
Soooooo, I finally did it
I have worn a spinner ring for the last 20+ years, but I wanted to do something different with my designs, from what I've seen on the market
I starting playing around in my head the designs of spinner rings and even got as far as ordering the spinner ring flaring gadget in January 2022, where it has sat in its box where I left it until now.
A combination of other ring ideas I wanted to play around with and too many variables to work with left me paralysed so much so it has taken me 16 months to finally design and make my first batch of spinner rings.
With more and more of my customers asking for these rings over the last 4 months, and in the lead up to Christmas, I thought it was about time for me to put on my big gal pants and get on with it.
In principal the design process is relatively straight forward, and really shouldn't pose any real challenges, as all you need to do is to create 2 rings one smaller than the other , place the larger ring over smaller ring and flare out the edges.
So with this in mind I set about creating the inner rings, the first of which I decided I would add a 8mm rainbow moonstone to the spinner part of the ring, so with this in mind I wanted the smaller ring to have stars to tie in with the moonstone, made to a UK size R.
I also created 2 more stamped rings for an Amber and Vesuvianite stone that I just received from India:
Handcrafted SS stamped rings
So far so good and I'm on a roll, next step is to create the spinner part of the ring and I want the band to have the same as the inner ring, and this is where I made my first mistake and mis calculated the required length of sterling silver metal sheet, and made it too small!!
Even trying to stretch it the ring is still to small to be the spinner of the rainbow moonstone ring, so there's nothing for it I have to scrap it and start again, paying more attentions to my calculations.
The final thing is to solder the settings for the stones on the spinners, and all 3 spinner rings are a perfect with the movement without it being too tight or slack:
As to the first spinner band?
Waste not want not, I decided to make the ring into a pair of huggies:
A quick polish and a 2 hour session in the tumbler to make the components all nice and shiny the next process is to set the gorgeous stones:
So far so good, things are going swimmingly well, and the last part of combining the 2 rings before flaring the edges, is going to a breeze according to the videos I watch with regards how to use It.
I think I should have learned by now when it comes tometalsmithing that something that appears to be simple invariably never is, but hey ho, lets go.
Excitedly I added the spinner flare gizmo to the vice and added the first ring, the Vesuvianite and applied some pressure to flare the ring edges, job done!!!
Ecstatic with the final ring the colour of the Vesuvianite compliments the stamp of the ring and the spinner moves and works perfectly!!!
A new healing crystal to me and its only recently I have come across it, Vesuviante is a healing crystal that activates the heart chakra encouraging one to follow ones hearts' desire. By overriding ones ego, its a high vibrational stone that assists in spiritual growth and allowing progress in ones life.
Bouyed by the success of the first attempt, maybe I was overconfident and missed something, or maybe because I had set a bigger stone, but when I came to do the same to both the rainbow moonstone and the baltic amber stones, the flaring gizmo, only flared one side of the ring, even when I flipped it and tried flaring it created an warped flare, resulting in the spinner not spinning freely:
Gutted that I was only 33% successful in my first attempt in creating spinner rings, but that's the nature of the game when learning new designs in a handcrafted business, not to be dishearted, I still have the huggies I created earlier:
So the plan is to remove the flare without damaging the spinner part of the rainbow moonstone and baltic amber rings, and create the inner rings again.
Once I have separated the 2 rings, I will practice using the spinner flare gizmo to understand how it works, or just use a dapping punch and a hammer to achieve the same effect.
What do you think?
I would love to hear your comments below
Joolz xxx
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