I made this ring a couple of months ago while still in Seattle, but it turned out so well that I decided it should find its way in to this new blog space. The ring was fabricated from square, sterling silver, bar stock and a faceted garnet. I started by forming the bar stock into a small ring, soldered it and then marked out into quarters which allowed me to evenly forge it out into its final profile and size. When I had hammered it out into the size/shape that I intended it to be, I cut the opening for the stone along the original solder line and then removed slightly less metal than the amount needed to create the space to seat the stone. I then cut the seats for the stone with a setting burr, slipped it onto my ring mandrel to spread the opening to set the stone and once the stone was in place, I carefully slipped the ring off of the mandrel to snugly capture the stone. The forging of the heavy stock provides enough security for the stone to stay in place....
