The birth of a ring

Jan Hendrik

Jan Hendrik

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Pretoria, South Africa
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This is a ring I am making to replace a clients ring that I made years ago. The client lost the ring and claimed from the insurance for a replacement. The design was done by my ex employer Heide Marie Meier. The design was drawn directly on the ring blank with a scriber, then pierced out.
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The pierced design shaped with burrs and files.
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Surfaces cleaned up and pre-polished. The tube setting has also been soldered in place.
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Yellow gold sidebands soldered on and some yellow gold granules added. Some more gold granules need to be added according to the design.
 
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monk

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nice job and tutorial as well. james b. meeks mentioned in his book a woman by the name of heide marie hiptmaier. not sure of the spelling, but was curious to know if this was the same lady. our duty historian may know. do you know if she did guns ? how long were you in her employ ? not meaning to hijack your post, but am quite curious.
 
Jan Hendrik

Jan Hendrik

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Pretoria, South Africa
atexascowboy2011 said:
I can appreciate that you fabricated rather than cast this piece.
A job very well done.
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Than you! I hand fabricate about 99% of my jewellery. I have nothing against casting, I just enjoy the challenge of hand fabrication. The bigger the challenge the greater the satisfaction at the end.

monk said:
nice job and tutorial as well. james b. meeks mentioned in his book a woman by the name of heide marie hiptmaier. not sure of the spelling, but was curious to know if this was the same lady. our duty historian may know. do you know if she did guns ? how long were you in her employ ? not meaning to hijack your post, but am quite curious.
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Not the same person as she never did any guns. Heide Marie Meier is an award winning jewellery designer here in South Africa. She was born in Namibia and later moved to South Africa at a young age.
 
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Eric Olson

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Nice job -
Have you ever considered rubber molding some of your fabricated components and casting them?
Making multiples is much easier, and when you get a design you are especially happy with you can capitalize on it - for years.
Also you could possibly use the same components to make matching earrings and necklaces.
 
Jan Hendrik

Jan Hendrik

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Joined
Jan 24, 2014
Messages
292
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Eric Olson said:
Nice job -
Have you ever considered rubber molding some of your fabricated components and casting them?
Making multiples is much easier, and when you get a design you are especially happy with you can capitalize on it - for years.
Also you could possibly use the same components to make matching earrings and necklaces.
Click to expand...

I have done this before. I made some dome rings with carved flowers directly into the sterling silver. Then made rubber moulds of them. I am still busy getting my home casting setup up and running to do some small scale reproductions of my work for internet sales. I can post pictures of the flower ring masters that I made a few years ago if there is enough interest for me to go to the trouble of taking pictures.
 
Marrinan

Marrinan

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Just beautiful fabrication and finish work. Soldering was no picnic either I am sure. Very well done.

In my first course in jewelry was taught by an old school master fabricator formerly of Faberge. It was his belief that if fabrication was possible it should always be the first choice. Sometimes it is impossible, then you cast only those components that can't be fabricated. I have always remembered those words. Fred
 
Jan Hendrik

Jan Hendrik

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Jan 24, 2014
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292
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Marrinan said:
Just beautiful fabrication and finish work. Soldering was no picnic either I am sure. Very well done.

In my first course in jewelry was taught by an old school master fabricator formerly of Faberge. It was his belief that if fabrication was possible it should always be the first choice. Sometimes it is impossible, then you cast only those components that can't be fabricated. I have always remembered those words. Fred
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Fred, I will take it one step further and say that anything that can be done with casting can be done via hand fabrication as well. In my 19 years working in the trade I can count the times I needed to cast instead of hand fabrication on two hands and even then I only went the casting route because it was easier to cast, but not impossible to hand fabricate.
 
Roger Bleile

Roger Bleile

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monk said:
nice job and tutorial as well. james b. meeks mentioned in his book a woman by the name of heide marie hiptmaier. not sure of the spelling, but was curious to know if this was the same lady. our duty historian may know. do you know if she did guns ? how long were you in her employ ? not meaning to hijack your post, but am quite curious.
Click to expand...

Heidemarie Hiptmayer was an Austrian gun engraver of great skill who worked first for Franz Sodia and later immigrated to Canada in 1972. She has been deceased for many years.
 
silverchip

silverchip

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I am with you Jan, I love to fabricate and think that casting has its place but there is no reason it can't be done from solid stock. I just got finished rebuilding an old 5" Stanat Rolling mill for fabricating my own stock.
 
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