[Rwgoldsmth]

I figured I would post this here so people can see the process. progress will be slow as i'm simultaneously building a jewelry brand and working on customer projects plus day job:nuts:
Since I'm going to have to cut a mold for these i'm going to make these available to purchase but the trophy rings will have some special details.
so lets get started heres a rough sketch.


Ring blank made and face, well.... faced


and we have the skully laid out roughly.


stay tuned
rw

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Spent a few minutes removing the background

 

[balline36m3]

That's awesome dude!!!

 

[HickLife]

Thats awesome! What are they made from?

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Thanks guys but I've barely made a dent yet hehe.
these ones will be made from sterling silver . ment to get more work in on it today but had a special rush order. Customers 11 year old daughter has been in and out of the hospital all year and he wanted a necklace to cheer her up.
"Tough Cookie"
Sterling and chocolate cz


sorry for the crappy phone pics
rw

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Alright background has been removed and all the edges squared off. I've put a 5 degree undercut around all the edges. The 5 degrees is needed as the enamel needs something to hold on to.
now I just need to stipple the background and shape the rest of the skully.
rw

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Background stipple


Ring essentially carved


And went to make a mold and this happened

Going to have to cut it out and make a new one. Lovely waste of $15
Cheers rw

 

[Cookie2000ad]

And went to make a mold and this happened

What is it that happened? I'm guessing the ring isn't supposed to be at the bottom of that fluid?

Well, it is/was looking great!

 

[jerryatrophy]

I am so in for one of these. Rad as fook!

 

[HickLife]

What is it that happened? I'm guessing the ring isn't supposed to be at the bottom of that fluid?



Well, it is/was looking great!

Looks to me that its supposed to sit in the little pin in the middle, but it fell over...

Thats sucks man, at least its an easy fix. It looks awesome though, good job man

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Yeah its a high strength silicone mold compound. You make the mold on the ring carefully cut it out. Then inject the mold with wax.the ring originally sat on top of the pin.

 

[crystal_skull]

Fucking badass!
I don't get the mold/wax plug part. What does that do for you?

 

[JPChaos]

Very cool

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Fucking badass!
I don't get the mold/wax plug part. What does that do for you?

I'm guessing it's to use in a Lost Wax cast process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-wax_casting

 

[HickLife]

Fucking badass!
I don't get the mold/wax plug part. What does that do for you?

If i'm not mistaken he's gonna use the mold to make a bunch of wax rings and then you can take that and put it in sand, plaster, or something that will withstand the heat. And do a lost wax mold, pour your molten metal in it and the wax melts away and the metal replaces it.

Never done it myself but i was looking into making a ring from tungsten a bout 2 years ago and i found a lot on that. You can do it for all sorts of stuff too, i've even thought of casting my own aluminum parts that way. Just carve it out of wax and use the same process.

Edit: Dang cookie beat me to it...

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Wow I'm seriously running out of time to get these done. but I finally have a couple of good waxes first round of casting will be my next day off

 

[jerryatrophy]

Hey man how did you get into doing this? Im looking for a creative outlet. Any literature out there to look at or is it an apprenticeship type of thing?

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

There are a lot of ways into this sort of thing. If you are looking for a hobby check your local community collage they have some basic classes that's how I started.
if your looking for a career there are a couple of great schools. I went to the Howard academy for the metal arts It's a great school and a good start. There are some self taught guys around that are amazing but I wouldn't recommend it. Other people find a job in a job shop or casting house. Learn as they go. It's a tough job and can be scary as hell. Ive had to set a $80000 diamond in a way that if I was .02 mm off I could have broken the diamond Using only hand tools and a 10x loupe. But you get to make some pretty awesome stuff.

 

[Fight Everything]

I thought diamonds were incredibly tough. How the hell would a ring placement have broken a diamond??

 

[Rwgoldsmth]

Diamonds are hard, in this case it's referred to as scratch resistance. Diamonds are the only things that can scratch diamonds. And they are fairly tough but not unbreakable. You could put a diamond on an anvil and smash it with a hammer. It would shatter in to bits. Now take a peice of jade and do the same thing and your hammer will bounce off likely causing no damage. but for everyday wear diamonds are still a great choice because of their scratch resistant and toughness.