GS: Back from the Brink of Death...

I had a client bring me his great grandmother's ring in hopes to use it as an engagement ring. Unfortunately, it was on the brink of death.

A ring normally should be at least 1.5mm thick to be stable. This ring was under .5mm. A platinum ring could possibly survive in the 1mm+/- ballpark, but this ring was a really low carat gold (either 8 or 10K.) To get you to understand how thin this ring is, I actually cut the ring shank off with a normal pair of scissors.



Needles to say, the ring was not wearable. If the client attempted to wear it as is, snagging it and one good tug would destroy the ring. Oh... and there was 4 solder joints in the shank alone. So, my best plan was to use the most important part (the shoulders, head and bezel) and treat it as if I was inlaying it into a whole new ring...




The best way to fabricate the new ring was out of wax. This way I could sink the metal into the wax to start creating the layout...




And then from there, carve the wax ring around the head and shoulders...



Once the wax was complete, I popped the metal out and was left with the ring to be cast in 14K red gold...




The reason I chose 14K red gold was because the color of the head was odd. It wasn't quite yellow and it wasn't quite copper, so the red complimented the old metal without making it look brassy or tarnished. And it looks lovely with the ruby too

The finished product came out really well. It retains the sentimental value by including the most decorative part of the original ring but is now stable and will last one (or more) generations.