Adventures in Ring Design

Back when I first started making jewellery, there were no tutorials online – no pinterest, no craftsy, no jewelrylessons.com. So when I wanted to make a ring, I had to sort of figure it out myself. And what I came up with was pretty neat – a base with beads “sewn” on top:

I’ve sold hundreds, even thousands of these little suckers. But that tiny wire used to sew those beads on? Yeah, grabbing that is actually kind of painful on my hands. And they’re not very fast. And Arts North opens in about a week so I need to have rings made. So last week I thought, there must be some other way, and I looked up a few different tutorials online and gave ’em a go.

First, I tried the Basic Bead Ring pattern by Patricia Capotosto. This is the ring that everyone makes and I thought well, if I’m going to be quick, this looks like the best place to start. But maybe I can give it spin by using my lampwork orphan beads from Amy Hall:

Can you spot the non-artisan bead?

Well aren’t they delicious like candy?! But quite tall off the hand…

Photo

Which is fine – I know some folks like that! – but only a limited number of people are the audience for this particular design. I’m starting to feel comfortable with the heavier gauge wire and the simpler ring base, but I need something else.

OK. So what next? The clock is ticking! My eyes light upon my button box, and away I go!

Button rings: Yes or no? (I know they're not original but that's OK, right?)

Oh yes, these are fun! Some vintage buttons and some new buttons combined to make a great little cocktail ring. I flew the idea across my Facebook page however, and the comments were basically that they didn’t look like Gayle Bird Designs. Fair enough! I tried adding some swirlies across the top though, and it didn’t quite work out.

With time running out on this long weekend, I thought well, I’m just going to have to do something boring. I found beads similar to the lampworked ones but much smaller, and when you use the smaller donut beads, the result is kind of a solitaire style, which I actually like quite a bit!

Solitaire Style

Well, what happens if I put more than one bead on there? As it turns out, it begins to look channel-set… and it starts to look a little more like something I would do.

Channel set style

Finally, before I got out of bed yesterday morning I thought, there’s GOT to be a way to make Gayle-swirls on these rings without taking forever! I came up with an idea and after some experimentation, I think I’ve finally hit on a good compromise of time, style, and originality: the Rosette Ring:

Rosette style

 

I am VERY pleased with this new design! It’s using my favourite two-toned firepolished Czech glass beads, there’s an element of swirl in there (they’re hand-swirled, no tools involved) and after a few tries I was able to make a LOT.

Now I just need to figure out how to steampunk some rings and I’ll be all set. … Hm… if anyone needs me, I’ll be in the studio….

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