Today I wanted to share the design and making process of a recent commission piece.

The brief:

The client asked if I could make her a spiral ring. She was very clear on the design she wanted - a wide band, with a disc of silver about the size of a 2p on top. She wanted a brass ball in the centre with brass and silver wire spiralling outwards to the edge. She asked if it was possible for the wire to twist off the edge of the disc and form a snake head on the side.

Symbolism:

This ring design is deeply symbolic for the client. She wanted a spiral as a representation of the cyclical nature of life’s journey - a reminder that rather than life being a straightforward linear path, that instead we journey round through the different seasons of it, sometimes going forwards, sometimes returning.

The design also draws on the symbolism of the serpent to represent rising kundalini energy - a form of divine feminine energy believed to be located at the base of the spine, that spirals through the body, up the spine and along the chakra lines.

Construction:

Step 1 - making the ring band. For this ring, I decided on a wide band, using rectangular wire. It needed to be deep enough to carry the weight of the top, and a rectangular shaped wire would give me a nice amount of surface to solder the disc onto. Making the band went very smoothly, all sorted on the first solder.

Step 2 - the silver disc backplate, which I sawed out from 1mm thick silver sheet. After a quick file and sand I was happy. Fab, all on track.

Step 3 - the brass ball for the centre. This turned out to be much more tricky than I anticipated. I haven’t worked with brass since college so I was a bit rusty with it. Brass has a much MUCH higher melting point than silver or gold. To make a ball, you just melt down some wire and the metal naturally balls up when it’s molten. This brass did not want to play ball unfortunately. It took A LONG time to melt, and even longer to ball up. But we got there in the end, lol. Just feeling a lot hotter than usual after.

Step 4 - attach the silver and brass wire to the brass ball and form a spiral. I filed the two lengths of wire at an angle to get a closer contact with the central ball, and bent it round into a ‘hook’ to sit tightly around the ball, before soldering them together. This was fiddly, but turned out well. The more contact the metal has with each other, the better the soldering join. I then coiled the two pieces of wire around the central ball, trying to keep the spiral as tight as possible. I didn’t want any gaps between the coils. This is tricky as metal naturally work hardens as you form it. The molecules compress and it becomes much tougher, and springy. Springy is not good for creating a nice neat spiral, as it wants to spring out and uncoil itself. Ah. So I ended up annealing (re-heating to soften the metal) this bit many times.

Step 5 - attaching the spiral to the backplate. Once I was happy with my spiral, it was time to solder it to the back plate. At this point the spiral was quite a bit bigger than the backplate. I wanted to leave plenty of wire length for me to play around with to form the snake head on the edge. Once again, this bit went pretty smoothly and I was very happy with the result - all parts of the wire were nicely attached to the back plate.

Step 6 - forming and attaching the snake head. Initially I attempted to form the snake head by melting the excess silver wire attached to the back place to form a ball, and then file it to shape. This didn’t quite work and I wasn’t happy with it, so I chopped it off and decided to make a head separately and solder it on. I twisted the brass and silver wire together to form a little twist as it moved from the top to the edge, cut off the remaining excess and soldered on the snake head that I had now made. All very tricky as the snake head was tiny, so this was a fiddly job! But worth it, it looked great in the end.

Step 7 - attaching the ring band. This was a nervous moment! With so many soldering joins already, I was worried that the snake head might fall off as I soldered on the ring band. I secured it in place with lots of binding wire just in case! And the ring band went on smoothly too. phew! Right, that was all the soldering done. Now time for the filing, sanding and polishing.

Step 8 - cleaning it up. After a file and a sand to smooth all the rough edges and excess solder (plus to get rid of the pink tinge on the brass that had formed due to repeated heating), I gave it an initial polish. I decided to go with a nice shiny finish, and I oxidised the centre of the band to help highlight the different strands of the spiral. Then it was time for the final polish, and here is the finished piece.

The client was very happy with the finished ring and I was so thrilled. When a client has a very clear idea of what they want, and it’s a particularly symbolic piece, it’s a responsibility (and an honour) to make sure that what I make matches up to the image in their mind. So I was very happy with this piece that it lived up to her expectations.

Lauren x