How are rings made?

There are two main ways to make a ring: metalsmithing and casting. Think of metalsmithing as you would welding. You have sheets, tubes, pipes, etc. of metal, and a torch as your heat source. Through varying techniques, you connect those metal pieces to form your finished object. A metalsmith uses the same process, just with smaller tools and precious metals. For example, to make a gold ring through this process, you take a sheet of gold metal, measure and draw out the rectangle of gold, cut through with a jeweler’s saw and bench pin, then hammer and bend into shape around a ring mandrel. Once your joints are lined up, you solder them together forming your solid ring. From there, you are able to hammer, engrave, and polish to the desired finish.

The other main way is known as lost wax casting (and this is the technique we use). While metalsmithing is start to finish metal, casting deals primarily with wax. Think of this technique as you would a sculptor of marble or clay. As Michelangelo chiseled David out of a solid block of marble, so is the approach to carving a ring out of wax. You start with a hard block, then carve and chisel away with a series of files and sand papers until you reveal the form from within. Or, more similar to a clay artist, you can start with a soft wax, similar in texture to beeswax. With this you warm it in your hands until malleable; then, working next to the flame of a candle to warm your tools, you carefully sculpt it into your ring design. 

Once your wax form is finished, it is placed into a canister and filled with what we call investment (a gritty plaster-like substance), and is fired in a kiln. While the kiln heats up, the investment solidifies into a hard block and makes a mold around your wax design, from which the wax itself burns out, leaving a perfect cavity with your design suspended in the middle. 

Still with me? This is where it gets fun.

After a few hours in the kiln, the investment is ready to party. Literally. It gets placed into a spinning centrifugal casting contraption, and wound up so that the springs are ready to spin when you flip the switch. In the middle of the contraption is the crucible, into which you add your perfectly measured out gold or silver casting grain (which has to be EXACT, otherwise it’s not going to come out correctly). You light your torch, and heat your metal. Once it reaches the melting point and is a glowing molten blob, you flip the switch and set the machine spinning. And thanks to the laws of physics, the molten metal shoots straight into your investment and fills the mold, transforming your sculpted design into metal.