It’s Rude To Stare.

[Dennis]

It’s rude to stare, so when I saw this ring on a bus one morning, I made sure there was no eye contact with the wearer. After all, it’s a bit lame if asked ‘What you lookin’ at mate?’, to reply ‘I want to make a ring just like yours.’

What’s more it was across the aisle and too far way to take in the construction, other than it had a basket shape and small turquoise marquise stones in a vertical row.

After a few experiments in copper, I found a way forward was to lightly roll some round wires to create flats, put four together and clamp them at the centre in a vice, using a piece of wood. The ends could then be twisted to create a shank. The remaining flat centre would become the basket.

Once made into a ring the flat strands were easily separated and took up the required form, without any need for further shaping. The degree of separation was used to fine tune the sizing.

In order to support the bezels and make a base for the stones I then added a vertical strand. All the wires were notched so that the effect would be flush.

Wires used, 4x round 1.2mm, slightly flattened. Clamped area, 21mm.
Size of ring, S. This became size O when the strands were separated.
Turquoise marquise stones, 7.0 x 3.6mm. Dennis.