Week 7
Signet ring project
This week I carried on with the signet ring I started last week. I started by melting some silver to have enough to create the next parts of the signet ring. At first, the melting didn’t go as planned and an air bubble was created which created a big hole on the surface of the silver sheet. I therefore had to remelt it and this time it worked out better. I then cut the extremities, cleaned it, and passed it in the rolling mill until I reached a 1mm thickness. This is the bit I’ll use to create the external part of the shank. (See signet ring pictures 1 and 2)

picture signet_ring 1

picture signet_ring 2

I therefore plied it following the curve of the inside tube created last week. It needs to have at least a 1mm separation with the tube. The top parts of the shank will meet the top square of the ring that I created last week. (See signet ring pictures 2 and 3) The idea was to decide of the space I want between the top square and the shank which will be around 3-4 mm. Once happy with the result, I filed the top part of the shank so the square can properly sit on top of it and then soldered the two parts together. (See signet ring pictures 5 and 6)

picture signet_ring 3

picture signet_ring 4

picture signet_ring 5

pictures csignet_ring 6

Afterwards, I reshaped the ring to make sure it had two straight sides on the top part and a proper rounded shape on the bottom. (See signet ring pictures 7 and 8) Once done, I used the last sheet of sliver I had, used the rolling mill to make it wider and thinner to 1mm thickness and traced the shape of each profile of the ring on this silver sheet. (See signet ring picture 9) I then had to cut both the shapes just traced perfectly. It is important not to cut to close to the traced line as this part will fill the side of the ring and needs to be perfectly waterproof for the ring to have a perfect final result. (See signet ring picture 10) I cut one profile that matches pretty well with the profile of the ring. I will carry on with that project next week.

picture signet_ring 7

picture signet_ring 8

picture signet_ring 9

pictures csignet_ring 10

Engraving
During this week’s engraving lesson, I wasn’t ready to engrave the Florentine ring because the pattern wasn’t finished yet, so I decided to train to engrave what I wanted on top of the signet ring. In fact, in the past I created a family coat of arms for my family and I therefore decided to engrave it on the top of the signet ring. (See engraving picture 1)

pictures engraving 1

I first wanted to train on a larger scale and only with the bear and the rooster items of the design as they are the hardest. I therefore drew the external lines of the design on a 2x2mm copper sheet, engraved the extremities and started carving the inside of the drawing. The teacher helped me a lot to understand which part should be more or less deep on the drawing. Also, the whole drawing needs to be inversed from right to left so when the ring is used on wax it would be appearing correctly. (See engraving pictures 2, 3 and 4) It was a very complex process for two main reasons: the surface is really small to engrave on which doesn’t leave much space for details. Furthermore, it is a very precise and delicate process to create a contrast between each part of the engraving pattern. I’ll train next week and start on the actual signet ring when I’ll feel ready and comfortable with the design.

pictures engraving 2

pictures engraving 3

pictures engraving 4