The Anatomy of a Wedding Set

Commissions are fun to do. Stressful, but fun. The sweetest girl named Jill asked me to custom make her & her beloved a wedding set similar to one of the designs in my shop.
I was so honored to be chosen to make something so special, I thought I would share the process......

First I had to build the stock for the bands in flat pieces. Getting the pieces of stock to cooperate and lie flat is tricky sometimes but that is where a good rawhide mallet comes into play.

This picture shows the two pieces made for the rings. The one on the left is after the silver has been picked & the one on the right is before pickle, just after soldering with all the flux still on the silver. It looks bad at first but as you can see the pickle cleans it up nicely.

Then the next step is to cut the new stock to length & shape around the mandrel to make rings. The ends have to be filed & fitted several times to make sure they fit just right so the solder join is strong. A rawhide mallet works best to shape the rings as it does not mar the outer surface design of the metal.

This is a picture of the rings finished but before the patina has been added. I soldered in a 14kt white gold bezel for the diamond. The gold is stronger & more durable than the silver so it is best to set valuable stones in a harder metal.

It also makes the stone harder to set as the bezel takes much more pressure to turn over the stone.

The rings look nice in this matte finish. Just a brass brush & some steel wool to make them nice and clean & smooth for the patina.

You know me... I can't seem to call something finished unless I dip it in patina.

The patina took several layers of process. One was an overall patina where I then polished off the middle high spots. Then the outer ring edges had to be sanded smooth & re- patinaed twice to get a nice even color. I painted the patina on with a paint brush on the final step.

Into the tumble for a nice polish & then I set the stone. I think they turned out very nice. I hope Jill and Barrie like them & wear them in good health for many happy years!