7th Century Frankish Ring

Here's my latest project, continuing to try new things, and build on things I've already tried. I wanted to make a version of this ring. 

And check out this amazing back! 

So I started with the bezel, with an 8mm round cabochon. The first part is exactly like my first bezel ring. 

Then I formed the beaded wire around the center bezel, then formed a 1mm round wire around that. 

I soldered the round wire, I did not solder the beaded wire. 

Then I arranged all three pieces onto a back plate, and soldered them all on at the same time. I use wire solder, and cut pieces right around 1mm long. Yes. They're tiny. I could buy the precut pallions, but the wire is more versatile. I used approximately 10 pieces, with four inside the bezel and six spaced evenly around the outer edge, balanced between the beaded wire and the round wire. Heating the bezel from underneath on a tripod pulls the melted solder down to the back plate when it flows. It flows toward the heat.

I used a jeweler's saw to cut out the bezel, and a file to neaten up the edge. The photo is before the file work was done.

Now time for the shank! The ring band. Starting with 2mm round wire.

I flattened the end a bit. I drew it out slightly, as well.

Then I used the saw to split the end in two. Getting this even actually failed both times, but it's close enough I was able to file the fatter side down to match the other side.

The process of curling those forked ends out took some fiddling. Round nose pliers, a bit more hammering, filing, annealing, cutting a bit of the ends off, pliers again. The photos over simplify the process, really, but I also think practice will simplify the process in time, too. I ended up doing two things wrong, overall: I flattened too much of the wire, really, and I split too far down. Both times. The former is just something to know for the future. The latter was cured by cutting off the ends as I formed them.

Repeat that on the other side, and then form the shank around a mandrel. This involved a steel mandrel and rubber headed hammer. And then a lot of fiddling to get the curlicues to sit flat on the back of the bezel.

I did clean everything up with a file, and then the pieces can be soldered together.

I need to add the granules to the shank, and then it's time to set the stone! I puzzled over the best way to attach the granules. I don't have any gum Arabic or hide glue, which would both be good temporary adhesives to hold the granules in place. I decided to solder the granules together, since there are only three to each side, and then I used a third hand to hold the ring at an angle, and sweat soldered each granule cluster one at a time. Sweat soldering, in this situation, involved melting a bit of easy solder on the back of the granule cluster, placing it on the band, and then heating it all together, to melt that solder and make it flow between all the pieces. 

So here's the finished setting, ready for the stone. The granules were more successfully attached on one side than the other, but I accepted several steps back that this was a test piece, so I'm not going to attempt cutting them off and reattaching them. I did also polish the piece (by hand) at this point. I might go back over it again, but I wanted to get it to a certain point before adding the stone. This is another black onyx. The original cabochon was blue glass. I've ordered some blue lapis lazuli stones to use for the next version. 

And here's the finished ring!