Category: Ring-A-Day

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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: St. Valentine’s Day ring

This ring was fabricated for my wife for Valentine’s Day. She caught on to the idea that if I’m going to make a Ring-A-Day, then maybe some of them should be for her (if not all of them). Smart woman! Lucky I married well.

Never mind that we had tickets to one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays, Richard III at BAM with Kevin Spacey, I still had to give her something red to honor St. Valentine.

My kingdom for a horse!

Kevin Spacey did it. I like the not to Verbal Kint with the leg brace. We were entertained.

NOTE: David Letterman spoiled 6th Sense on-air in 1999. The studio lambasted him. In response, Dave ruined 10 more films in his nightly top ten count down. It went something like this:

10: Patrick Swayze is a ghost (Ghost)
9: Lou Cypher is Satan (Angel Heart)
8: Bruce Willis is dead (6th Sense)
7: She’s her sister and her mother (Chinatown)
6: Kevin Spacey did it. (Usual Suspects)
5: Luke, I am your father. (Empire Strikes Back)
4: Brad Pitt is Ed Norton (Fight Club)
3: Kevin Spacey did it. (Se7en)
2: She’s a guy. (Boys Don’t Cry)
1: Kevin Spacey did it. (American Beauty)

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