Hubby's Birthday Ring

OK, so my husband's Birthday was in November and I just finished his ring! It's a good thing he's patient!

I started with a piece of 2mmx8mm sterling silver, a 1/2mmx6mm piece of copper, and sterling wire. Then I sawed them all to the size I needed and stamped the copper piece with my husbands initials. I wanted to use the cold riveting method to attach the copper to the silver so I drilled holes in both metals and counter drilled holes in the back side of the sterling. Using my torch, I annealed the sterling so that I could manipulate it. Next I placed the copper over the sterling and inserted the sterling wire. I guessed on the length of the sterling as I hadn't used this method before. Taking a deep breath, I carefully hammered the wire into the copper and sterling flipping it back and forth until both sides were smooth. I had a little excess on the back side of the sterling, but I was able to polish most of it off. Using my ring mandrel, I tapped the sterling with my rawhide mallet until I was able to get both sides to meet. Due to the thickness of the sterling, I had a difficult time matching up the ends. This is where I had my teacher assist me. After assisting me with getting the ends to meet, he wired the ring together with steal wire to keep the the ring closed so I could solder them together. After much filing and polishing, here's the completed ring:




















I think it was worth the wait!