Sterling Silver and 2mm Chocolate CZ Eternity Ring

Sterling silver Eternity ring set with 24 2mm Chocolate CZ’s

One type of ring that I have been wanting to try to make is an “Eternity” ring, where a ring band’s circumference is wrapped with evenly-spaced faceted gems. I had seen a lot of online videos of professional and master smiths creating them in a variety of styles using various tools ranging from burs to gravers, so I figured that I would give it a shot with what tools I have (jeweler’s saw, burs and files).

I had purchased a packet of 2 mm round Chocolate Cubic Zirconia stones back in 2014 to practice gypsy-set flush mounting of faceted gems with, and still had plenty of them left, so I dug those out to use. That way, if the ring turned out to be a total failure and needed to be scrapped, I wouldn’t run the risk of damaging expensive stones when retrieving them (and at 15 cents each I wouldn’t exactly be breaking the bank, either). 😉

I also had a little bit of square wire left from an ingot I had poured and rolled out for toggles on some cuff links I made a while back, so I rolled that out a little more until it was about 2.5 mm square, trued it up with a file and made a band in size 6 3/4 for the stones to be set in.

Determining the number of stones I should use so they would be evenly spaced around the band with enough gap between them (but not too much) was a slight challenge in itself. I have no idea if there’s a standard way of figuring this part out for eternity rings or not, so it took a bit of playing around with a calculator as well as laying the stones out, table down, around the ring on the bench for a rough “guess-timate”.

Sterling silver Eternity ring with CZ’s work-in-progress

I eventually settled on using 24 stones, so with caliper and dividers I marked off the band and got busy drilling holes, working with the saw, burs and a round file to make the seats, flutes and channel needed to create the necessary settings and “prongs” for the stones.

As I had never made an Eternity ring before, and am NOT a professional setter of faceted gems by any means (having only set faceted gems since I started silversmithing back up in 2014), I feel I still have a lot to learn in that area but was really pleased with the result.

It was a very fun and challenging ring to make, I got a lot of really nice practice in, and although it’s far from perfect in my eyes, just seeing the look on Kathy’s face when I handed the finished ring to her was priceless. 🙂

Sterling Silver Lover’s Knot Ring

To break in a newly cleaned and organized bench after Kathy had made me some heavy-duty shallow boxes to help organize my bench tray, I made this “Lovers Knot” ring for her out of 14 ga. sterling wire.

Sterling silver wire Lover’s Knot ring

I had seen one like it in a catalog, but it was a cast ring and not one fabricated from wire like this one. I hadn’t made one before, so I know a couple things I’ll change in the process when I make more of them, but it sure was a fun little ring to make!

Sterling Silver Moonstone Cabochon and Pattern Wire Stacker Ring

Here is a close-up of the stacker ring which I made to match the Rainbow Moonstone pendant pictured in the Sterling Silver Moonstone Moon Phase Pendant post.

Sterling silver Pattern Wire stacker with Rainbow Moonstone cabochon

I used the same pretty, but delicate pattern wire from Rio Grande that I had used as a bezel border on the pendant, set with a Rainbow Moonstone as well.

(And unfortunately this close-up has the same poor lighting as the pendant close-up… photography just isn’t my “thing”. :-/ )

Sterling Silver “Trinity Cross” Ring

Another one of my early 2014 projects… a “Trinity Cross” comfort ring I made for Kathy by taking heavy gauge half-round wire and forming it flat-side out on the ring mandrel.

Sterling silver Trinity Cross comfort ring

The idea of “comfort ring” was taken from my wedding band, as bands that were formed with smoothly rounded inside edges and marketed for their “comfort fit” were big at the time, and they really are quite comfortable bands to wear.

After soldering the band closed and bringing it to size, I then filed a trio of Crosses evenly spaced onto the face to represent the three Crosses on Calvary, followed by a little oxidization with liver of sulfur to make them stand out.

This picture was taken after *much* daily wear as you can tell by the scratches, yet still remains one of her favorites.

Sterling Silver and Opal “Pear” Ring

This one kind of dates me, as this is the opal ring I made for Kathy back in the 80’s that I’ve talked about elsewhere on the site, when I lived in a studio apartment in West Texas (though it could actually also use a touch-up or two and some re-polishing!).

Sterling silver and Opal “Pear” ring made in the 80’s

Made entirely of some scrap sterling sheet I still had in my toolbox at the time and a few hand-tools, this is the piece that resulted in a request by my mother-in-law for a pair of opal earrings back then which took me close to three decades to finally make. :-/

Not having anything in the apartment to attach my bench pin to, and using a portable torch set-up with disposable propane and oxygen bottles for soldering proved to be a little challenging in some ways, but I was determined to get it done.

I thought the free-form opal cabochon looked a little like a pear, and as the style of jewelry I was so accustomed to making at the time was southwestern in form, I thought a design incorporating a serrated leaf, serrated bezel and a split-shank band (all very popular in southwestern jewelry at the time) would go good with it.

Sterling Silver Cabochon Stacker Rings

Just a few of the many stacker rings set with 5 mm cabochon stones that I have made for Kathy and friends…

Sterling silver stacker rings with cabochon stones

With hammered bands, the gems used in the above picture are (clockwise from the top) Denim Lapis, Nephrite Jade, Moonstone, Adventurine and Amazonite.

Some of the many cabochon stacker rings I’ve made include stones of Carnelian, Black Onyx, Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, Amethyst, Citrine, Peridot, Swiss Blue Topaz, Salmon Coral, Iolite, Pink Sapphire, Rose Quartz, Hematite, a variety of Moonstone, and others.

Sterling silver stacker rings, variety

Above are some of the stacking rings I made for a co-worker’s wife. Pictured on her hand are Citrine, Adventurine, Moonstone, Sleeping Beauty Turquoise and a stamped Lotus Flower as well as plain hammered stacker bands.

Sterling Silver 3-Stone Ring W.I.P.

Sterling silver 3-stone Golden Topaz and green Cubic Zirconium ring, work-in-progress shot

A work-in-progress shot of a 3-stone ring in the making that includes a faceted oval Golden Topaz set in a prong basket, with two faceted 5mm green Cubic Zirconium gems to be tube-set with prongs. All pieces hand-crafted individually.

Sterling Silver Ring with Chocolate “Gypsy Set” CZ’s

This is actually not a very good photo of this ring (I am NOT the photographer in the family), so please excuse my poor pictures.

Sterling silver ring with Gypsy Set chocolate Cubic Zirconia

The ring was created from half-round wire formed and filed to shape, then set with eight Gypsy Set (flush-mounted) 2 mm Chocolate Cubic Zirconia gems.

I’ll see if I can’t get a better picture of this ring at a later date perhaps, as it really is much nicer than what I have been able to portray here, all out of focus with poor lighting and crazy reflections going on. :-/

Sterling Silver Heart Arrow Ring

OK, the basic idea for the ring below may have come from a retail catalog, but when Kathy said “I bet you could make something like that, couldn’t you?”, well, what else could I do than at least give it a try?

Sterling silver Heart Arrow ring, from wire and sheet

In the end I think it turned out even better than the cast ring in the catalog, except this Valentine’s Day present was handmade and fabricated from wire and sheet, not a cast identical in every detail to thousands of others!