my very first ring....

I was cleaning up today and came across the very first ring I ever made in the very first jewelry class I ever took so I thought I'd share it with you..... It was a beginners class and the instructor was a horrible teacher. I couldn't even tell you how I made the thing. When I told her I wanted to make a silver ring with a stone on top she wrote out the steps in these exact words:

1. bend

2. solder

3. solder bezel

4. set stone

5. polish

and sent me back to my seat to go make it while she chit chatted away with some other students about how she spent her weekend, what parties she went to and what she drank while she was there. 

sketch book from that class I took 23 yrs ago with my directions written in it

Now that's good and all if you actually have some kind of jewelry making knowledge/skills. Remember, this was my very first class. Obviously I had NO CLUE what I was doing. The girl sitting next to me had taken a few jewelry classes before and seemed to know what she was doing so I asked her what I was supposed to do. I felt bad interrupting her from her pieces by asking her so many questions that after a point I just did my own thing and wouldn't ask her anything unless I was totally stumped. I didn't know how to size my finger so I just cut a strip of silver and shaped it around the ring mandrel until it fit. That's the reason the ring overlaps. It wasn't really supposed to be part of the design as you can see in the sketch book above. In the end I was happy with the way it turned out but this is the only piece I have kept from that class. The other 3 items I made were scrapped years ago!

 I took this picture of the ring today in its "as is" state. A little tarnish and many, many scratches and dings....