Wedding ring finally finished, and a new hand forged necklace

Wedding ring finally finished.....took some doing. It went from too big, to too small, to too big to just right!!! At the point of it being too small, I tried to stretch it on a mandrel, but couldn't get it anywhere near the size it needed to be. In the end I had to saw it open and add a bit of the gold that I had taken out earlier. That meant two joins. To make it smaller (the final time) I had to open just one join, take out a small piece and resolder without melting the solder in the other join. I did it by hiding the join in the heat resistant tweezers which wirked fine. Phew, relieved it fits.

Paul is delighted with it, didn't realise initially that I made it which pleased me very much. He had better not lose this one......

I have made a very pretty hand forged chain which I was going to sell but I love it so much that I am going to keep it.

It took me hours, but it was worth it. I made the chain in the same way I did this one. I then made 3 larger rings from 1.5mm round wire, flattened and hammered them, and joined it all up with jump rings that I soldered closed. I dipped it in liver of sulphur to give it a lovely dark patina, then polished it up again.

I love the look of these hand made chains, but I need to find a quicker way of making them. I could start with soldered 8mm jump rings rather than make my own, but it would make it much more expensive. I also found soldering jump rings once linked to the necklace was fiddly and a bit hit and miss. Need to experiment some more.