I didn't cut these two cabochons. I bought them online as a pair at least one year before I got into lapidary. I've always loved them but I didn't know what to do with them until now.
Brazilian agate occurs in brownish tones inter-layered with white and gray. It most often appears in layers of bands with different colors in between. You can still see the bands on these two cabochons if you look behind a light.
I thought about making a pair of earrings as they would give an interesting contrast, but they are probably too heavy for the ears. After storing them away for 3 years, I have decided to make these two into statement rings, with adjustable ring bands.
I didn't take a lot of pictures during the process of making them, I hope these simple images would give you an idea of how stripes and sheets of metal could turn into something fun to wear:
When I set a stone, I like to plan if I would open the back, what size and shape, and how this shape would add a bit of accent to the finish piece to make it special. Agate is normally translucent, so I'm more than happy to a little light in to show off this quality. For a pendant, you can almost open the entire backing. However, for a ring, you need to have something to attach and support the ring band. I drew an opening with free hand into a shape sort of similar to a half oval. That should have enough space left on the surface for the ring band.
So here I had the bezels soldered to a good fit for the cabochons, back openings and the bases cut out, and the two adjustable ring band curved and formed.
I proceeded with my typical procedure on making rings: solder the bezel to the base, test to see if the stone fits in, then cut, file and sand the edges of the bezel cup till I'm satisfied with the shape I wanted to achieve (if it's oval, there shouldn't be any square corner; if it's supposed to be seamless, I don't want to see one tenth of an inch of the seam visible), solder the ring band to the cup, more sanding and polishing to finish the surface.
The specs are about the same for both rings, except the adjustable sizes:
Brazilian agate cabochons - oval, 30mm x 40mm
Sterling silver and fine silver (bezel)
Ring bands - adjustable
Hand-sawed, soldered, sanded and brushed finish.
Update on Nov 24, 2011: both rings are sold.
Are you a big ring person?
Thanks for reading.
Lamazonian Handcrafted Jewelry © 2005-2011. Photo: Vema.
Brazilian agate occurs in brownish tones inter-layered with white and gray. It most often appears in layers of bands with different colors in between. You can still see the bands on these two cabochons if you look behind a light.
I thought about making a pair of earrings as they would give an interesting contrast, but they are probably too heavy for the ears. After storing them away for 3 years, I have decided to make these two into statement rings, with adjustable ring bands.
I didn't take a lot of pictures during the process of making them, I hope these simple images would give you an idea of how stripes and sheets of metal could turn into something fun to wear:
When I set a stone, I like to plan if I would open the back, what size and shape, and how this shape would add a bit of accent to the finish piece to make it special. Agate is normally translucent, so I'm more than happy to a little light in to show off this quality. For a pendant, you can almost open the entire backing. However, for a ring, you need to have something to attach and support the ring band. I drew an opening with free hand into a shape sort of similar to a half oval. That should have enough space left on the surface for the ring band.
So here I had the bezels soldered to a good fit for the cabochons, back openings and the bases cut out, and the two adjustable ring band curved and formed.
I proceeded with my typical procedure on making rings: solder the bezel to the base, test to see if the stone fits in, then cut, file and sand the edges of the bezel cup till I'm satisfied with the shape I wanted to achieve (if it's oval, there shouldn't be any square corner; if it's supposed to be seamless, I don't want to see one tenth of an inch of the seam visible), solder the ring band to the cup, more sanding and polishing to finish the surface.
The specs are about the same for both rings, except the adjustable sizes:
Brazilian agate cabochons - oval, 30mm x 40mm
Sterling silver and fine silver (bezel)
Ring bands - adjustable
Hand-sawed, soldered, sanded and brushed finish.
Update on Nov 24, 2011: both rings are sold.
Are you a big ring person?
Thanks for reading.
Lamazonian Handcrafted Jewelry © 2005-2011. Photo: Vema.
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