Ring Woes

Ive been working on this ring for a bit now.

I designed it on paper-yes it all started with a sketch.
I made a paper board mock up.

And then I started to make it in metal clay. Its taken a bit longer than I had anticipated also. Bummer.
The idea was simple, the mock up a breeze, the actual execution
A NIGHTMARE!!!

I decided this needed to be silver, and not use bronze, its based on a logo for a dark metal band (yes I am a fan girl). And the inset of green enamel will work best against silver.
That and the silver clay is "easier" to work with--yeah right.

The U easy
the top circle with a channel, not so bad, but not perfect
the main shank: EVIL!

The original intension was to set 3 green stones
the shank kept breaking, the setting breaking
That piece broke and was fixed 5 times. I "finally" had it right, one last clean up of the stones and it disintegrated.
It broke in 4 places, then one sectioned crumbled.

Ok that shank with stones needed to be redesigned.
I was going to simplify.
So simple shank, with a basic rectangular channel for enamel.



let the 3 components dry.
Wash of slip and squish them together.

So far so good, then the shank breaks, just where it separates and goes solo.
Slip squish fix fix fix
add more clay

A little filing, everything is good.
So into the kiln it goes.

YAY! not yet....


The whole thing shrunk just a tad bit more than I intended, thats actually ok, since work hardening would stretch it just enough. so I started to tap it back into shape. And I do mean tap. then snap, and pop

The shank broke, and the top circle popped off the U.




Fixed, this time lots and lots and lots of slip and clay.

It survived being refined, it all looked good. In the kiln, it came out looking great. Back on the mandrel and tap tap tap pop.

Drat.

Well its all slipped up again, lets hope third times a charm.

I will share what I've learned, when this is finished.