rings

i *love* rings. love making them. love wearing them. love seeing other people's. this ring is prehnite, which is a new favorite of mine. it's pretty rare, so fairly expensive and rather difficult to find. there i go again, falling for what's out of my reach....

which reminds me of a funny story. embarrassing, but funny. the guys i had crushes on growing up? gay. all of them. i didn't find out they were gay until later, mostly. still. it's weird, don't you think? i'm guessing it's some kind of protection thing. i liked the guys that were unattainable, because they were safe. nothing would ever happen, so i was free to crush on them. twisted little brain of mine.

rings

this is my chaoroite ring that a wear all the time. i get lots of compliments on it. but mostly people want to know what it is. because it doesn't look real, does it? but it's totally natural! out of ground, this is what chaoroite looks like. it's from russia, and it's only found in one place; the chaoro river. i love this stone, but because it's so rare it's terribly expensive. why do i always fall in love with the stinking *expensive* stuff?! i swear, i go into a store and fall in love with the costliest item. it's a sickness.

metalsmithing: the ring issue

here are most of the rings i made this semester. from left, the stones are prehnite, larimer, labradorite, and charoite. i love all of these rings. there are little things wrong with them, but overall i'm pleased. yay! getting better!

rings

here are two more of the rings i've made in metalsmithing. the clear stone is moonstone and the turquoise one is chrysacolla. i really like the chrysacolla one. the moonstone not so much. but i'm getting better! yay!

metalsmithing

here is my first ever ring! soooooo cool!!!! so, okay, there are *tons* of things wrong with this piece, but oh. my. god. i made it! i love how simple it is. the thing that went the most wrong with this piece was when i *melted* it. it's made of two bands; an inside one and an outside one. jack (my teacher) soldered the inner ring to show me how to do, 'cause i'd never soldered before. and i've always been terrified of it. eeek! open flame! so jack showed me how to do it, and told me i had to do the outside one. i can do this. i can do this! so there i was, freaked out, with my acetylene torch and my fluxed ring. heating it up. heating it up. putting the solder on. heating it up. heating it..... oh, crap! it's red! it's *slumping*! turn off torch. dump ring in water. crap, crap, crap. show jack, who says, that's not that bad. advanced student says, "sandpaper it out." yay! salvagadgeable. is that a word? dunno. anyway. so i sanded it till the cows came home. which, of course, *thinned* the metal. hmmmmm... put the two rings together. stretched the inside band. compressed the outside band. soldered them together, and because i was the first one to get done, jack soldered one side of it for me, with the whole class looking on. so i had to do the other side. i can do this. i can do this. so i prepared my solder and then becca comes and says jake had a funny episode where he couldn't see out of one of his eyes. so i left, to get a ride home so becca could take jake to the er. on the way home jake refused to go to the er. i'm getting pissed off 'cause i had to leave my work in the middle of it.... jake's okay. just the wierd, random blindness virus, right? anyway, i went back up over the weekend (before the horrible esperanza concert; see next post) and soldered that puppy. i wasn't as scared of it the second time. i accomplished it! yay, me! so i don't especially *like* to solder, but i can do it. hopefully next time without melting my silver.