I made this ring for my husband, who is a blacksmith (as well as taking all these pictures!). He was going to the ABANA conference in the summer of 2006, and I finished it in time for that.

This is the first signet-style ring I made. I used standard forging techniques to make the inner and outer shells out of sheet silver. (Another alternative for the style is to carve the master in wax and cast it.) The miniature stakes made by Bill Fretz were invaluable for this process. The enamel sits on a bearing inside the hollow ring, and was made to fit.

I had to mix colors to get the rich, fiery shades in the enamel. Orange-reds are uncommon in leaded enamels, and I didn't have anything suitable. Fortunately a mixture of yellows and golds, with some somewhat pink-tinged oranges and red, turned out well.

This particular ring is a prototype. I hope to make him another after I've done a few more in silver, next time using either palladium white gold, or a new sterling/platinum alloy that looks intriguing.

Sterling silver, fine silver, glass enamel.

2006. NFS.