Hello again!
Here we have what happens when I don't really have a plan and I just keep messing around.
This band started out as an experiment in texture. I had hammered the silver on 80-grit sandpaper to see what kind of texture it would achieve. It was neat (photo below), but not my favourite. Certainly an idea to keep in my back pocket for localized texture, but I think not for a whole ring band. So I sanded it off and started playing again.
I played with the shape of the band by filing off part of the edges, ending up with this shape:
Ideally I would have thought ahead properly and cut this shape out of the original silver sheet so it would be symmetrical. This was just done as I went along, which was a fun process too. So, it's not perfectly symmetrical, but I think that's alright. I also hammered it because I love hammered texture. It adds an extra bit of sparkle.
Next, I decided which stone to use. After much deliberation, I decided on this sweet little Hessonite Garnet. The colour is so lovely and rich... red in some lighting, orange in other lighting. I would say it averages out to a lovely cinnamon-mixed-with-honey colour. I sorted out a bezel size for it and soldered it up:
bezel wire and backing soldered together, now in the process of filing down the edges.
Looks good!
Perfect fit!
Next I had to decide how the heck I was going to put all this together. I played with the idea of centering the stone, but the off-set band looked really cool to me, and was a new thing I hadn't tried before. I showed both options to 
So after some fiddling around to get it sitting just right, I soldered the bezel cup to the band:
At this point all I had to do was polish and set the stone.
See- the stone looking rather orange in low light...
...and quite red in daylight! SO pretty
still a bit of burnishing to be done on the bezel but overall lookin good!
I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out! Especially considering that I hadn't planned it out. I wore it for a while yesterday and it is very comfortable and light, but the stone is very eyecatching. I don't think I will keep this ring, though. It's not quite my own personal day-to-day style, so if anyone is looking for a cool garnet ring (January babies?) I would be happy to sell & ship. It's a size 9.
Thanks for stopping by!
Peace & Love,
Caitycat
