Jewelry Blog: Making My Brothers Wedding Rings, Part 1

Appraisal photo of the ring.

It’s a daunting (by special) request as a hobby silversmith; can you please make our wedding rings?

My brother and his wife-to-be have requested I venture out of my almost exclusively silver-working, and create matching wedding bands for them in gold.

To Match My Mom’s Ring

This is no ordinary task either; the band is to match a beautiful vintage gold and diamond engagement ring; my mother’s. She died more than 10 years ago, and may father passed the ring to my brother, who’s held onto it, waiting for just the right woman.  We’re very happy he’s found her, and that a piece of family history is being very much appreciated by both of them.

The ring is a simple prong-set solitaire, with a slightly raised edge.  The bands will be very simple to match.

We’ve been gathering unused, unwanted gold from various family members to keep it vintage when it comes to creating the bands.

In the next couple weeks, I’ll be working with an expert goldsmith and teacher who’ll guide my first real fabrication in gold.  While it’s not much harder of a metal to work in, it IS a lot more expensive.  Solder joints in silver cost next to nothing, while each solder joint in gold is about $25.  You have to be sure you’re ready to go.  And not to mention, if you screw up gold, it’s a mistake that costs several hundred bucks, instead of just $10-30 for raw silver.

Step 1 will be to test and then melt down the donated gold, and pour it into an ingot, or wafer.

Step 2: to draw the ingot down to a wire of appropriate gauge.

Step 3: form the wire, by giving it that edge to match.

I’ll update the steps as I go.  Wish me luck!

You can also check out other photos and notes on my Facebook page.

-Erin