Category: copper

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Ring-A-Day: Screw (up) Ring

O.K., so I had this great idea for a ring today, and, well, it didn’t work. I was forming a piece of copper pipe on the ring mandrel and didn’t anneal it. After a half hour of work, it fractured and split in 3 places. I’ll try again later, but  while I was wondering what to use to fix the problem: voila.

EPOXY!!!

I have lots of epoxy from making Ice Cream Sandwich, Cheese Cracker, and Chocolate Sandwich Cookie filling over the years. I grabbed the copper-filled epoxy and happened to find a screw in the bin. What an apt metaphor! I wrapped my ring mandrel with plastic wrap and formed the epoxy to a size 10.5, and then embedded the screw. Minutes later I had a Steampunk Icon.

Although the results from this quick setting plumber’s putty aren’t so aesthetically pleasing, I will definitely revisit epoxy. My favorite by far is Magic Sculpt with it’s slow setting times that allow you to refine your work before it sets up. Who knows, this may be a stepping stone to metal clay creations!

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Ring-A-Day: Peace Ring

So this ring was someone’s roof at one time or another. I got this roll of copper from a dumpster and have sketched many ideas on it over the years from hammer forming on manhole covers to copy them, to small simple things like this ring. Copper is the jeweler’s sketch pad. It’s conductive properties allow many metals to be deposited onto it. I’m considering gold plating this piece so it doesn’t react with skin.

I got the idea from a book called 30 Minute Rings and added the hammered texture. I may select other ideas from this book to keep up with my Ring-A-Day project. It’s a great book to help get your creative juices flowing.

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