hey it's Laura we're gonna go over a new
ring design that just kind of hit me
I've got some extra little pieces of
sterling silver sheet this is a 20 gauge
sterling silver sheet this was actually
a four inch by three inch sheet when it
started but I've made some rings out of
it and I've ended up with these little
extra pieces and I thought about melting
them down and then I thought well maybe
I could make kind of a cool funky little
ring out of them so I'm going to size it
up here this is my ring sizer that I use
just to kind of see how long of a piece
I'm gonna need and I'm thinking if I
overlap these two pieces solder them
together sand them down file them down
to where they're not so sharp because
these are pretty sharp edges and then
for my middle ring I think it's gonna
look pretty cool so come with me to the
studio and we'll get started the first
thing we want to do is to file down our
pieces make sure we get all the sharp
edges and all the burrs off so the ring
is comfortable to wear
you
the next thing we need to do is to fire
coat or sterling silver pieces and we
swish them around in boric acid and
denatured alcohol and then flame it off
with a lighter let the green flame burn
itself out
you
the next thing is to add a little dab of
sterling silver solder paste this is
actually an easy solder paste
you
once we have our solder pastes in place
we then go ahead and light our torch and
start to heat it up keep your torch
moving back and forth across the entire
piece and remember that a solder wolf
will flow toward heat so we want to make
sure we concentrate our heat where the
joint is but we don't want to stay there
in one position or it will burn
you
and what the solder begins to flow it
will look liquid almost a pink color and
you'll know that you're done you can go
ahead and turn your torch off and quench
it in a little bowl of cool water
now that our piece is soldered together
at least halfway you can see that there
is a little bit of fire scale on the
piece and we can remove this later right
now we're going to bend it into the
shape of the ring that we want so we use
a stiff solid steel ring mandrel
to kind of bend it a little bit and then
use some pliers to give it a little bit
of a D shape almost like the shape of
the letter D and we're just going to
solve it up solder them together like
this and then later we can shape it into
a better looking perfect round ring
now that we've got our piece put
together like we want to solder it we're
going to go ahead and do the fire coat
again again boric acid and denatured
alcohol and we're going to flame it off
with our lighter and let the green flame
burn out on its own don't blow it out
add another little dab of your silver
solder paste
you
now you're ready to start your torch
again and we want to continue to move
all around the ring all sides of the
Ring keep your flame moving even if you
see the piece start to catch on fire a
little bit that's okay that's just a
little bit of the fire coat burning off
we want to keep the torch on the ring
until we see it turn like a pinkish hue
it's going to glow a little bit on us
and we're going to see a little bit more
green flame coming in and as soon as
it's a perfectly pink color I'm going to
stop the flame we're going to pick it up
and quench it in a little bowl of cool
water again
and now I can see that our ring is
sutter together well test it a little
bit make sure that it's completely
together and then we're going to hammer
on our ring mandrel with our rawhide
mallet just to get into the shape of a
ring
you
now that we've got our ring shaped I'm
going to use a little ball-peen hammer
and give it a hammered texture
now we've got our ring shaped and
texturize like we want it the next thing
to do is to put it in a pickle bath and
we're going to use an all-natural pickle
in a crock pot and remove that fire
scale and any blend marks that are on
the piece
now that you've gone ahead and pickled
your piece we're gonna buff it up with a
brass bristle brush and I'm using my
Dremel here with a little brass tool on
the end just to buff it up shine it up
and then all you gotta do is if you want
to darken it go ahead and oxidize it in
a liver of liver of sulfur solution and
oxidize your silver if you want to leave
it shining sterling silver you can do
that too whatever style that you'd like
you