I’ve blinked and it’s suddenly November – where does the time go?

Until yesterday, I had 3 new crafts left to try to get to my 12 in 12 months, but now thats 2, after I spent the morning silver smithing!

Yep, I went and learnt how to make a ring.

Firstly there’s the measuring….. pretty tricky, as you need to be spot on, otherwise the ring is too big / small,  mm make a huge difference!

Then there’s was the piercing (sawing / cutting to us untrained), to get the ring the correct size.

I managed it – after a few false starts!  Trying to saw vertically, and hold a bit of silver that was wobbling was a little tricky!

Then I had to file the ends, to make sure it was straight so the soldering would work.

Then bending the ring around a “form” making one edge flat (on a round) thing was pretty tricky too.

Cleaning with flux, and soldering was next.

Luckily – it still fitted after this.  Then cooling and cleaning (pickling), making it round this time,  and filing to make the solder smooth.

This took a long time!

Then it was onto texturing….. also known as bashing it with a hammer!  This can also stretch the silver, so a lot of trying on was needed  Finally polishing and Ta dah………

2 and bit hours later, and I have a tiny weeny little ring for my little finger.

I really enjoyed this workshop.  Not sure I’m one for the tiny details, and the specificity needed, but I’m going to do another workshop, maybe a textured one next time.