Time to Play Again

For the last couple years things have been so crazy around here that I haven't had much time to just play with wire and see what I come up with. I've been so busy running my ear cuff shop, along with another side project, that my main jewelry shop and my tutorial shop have fallen by the wayside. Now that I have decided to close the other "side project" shop, I have more time to play. This week, my play time led me to making rings.

Yep, I know. Prong rings have been done before. Just, not by me. I figured it was time I decided to play around with them. Even if I never make another one, it's probably a good skill to have. The uniquely curved prongs on this one, though I love them, were a total accident. I measured the wires and cut them so that the prongs would be just at the top edge of the stone. Just enough to hold it in. Then I decided I wanted to hammer them. I forgot to take the amount of "spread" hammering would cause into account. So I ended up with prongs that were much too long. Instead of cutting and filing them again, and risk measuring wrong, I decided to curve them. It's not what I was originally intending to do, but it does give the ring a unique look.



Once I got the basic prong setting down (sort of) the next logical thing was to add some more woven wire. Let's face it. It's what I do. I weave with wire. I'm not really sure I know how to do much else. ;) And, since I didn't want to leave the tips just plain, I made spirals out of the prongs.


And then, of course, once you start weaving, you have to add beads, right? Out of all the rings I made using the basic prong setting as the starting point, I think this one is my favorite.


And, since I can't do prongs all the time, I had to make one with a whole lot of woven wire around the stone. You know, just because.

All of these rings are available for purchase at http://www.GailaviraJewelry.com.

Oh, and you know that little side project I mentioned earlier that's going out of business? There is still a handful of pieces left. All items have been marked down to 60% off the original price. Go to http://www.GoddessReturn.com to check it out!