Crafting the Curled Corners Ring

I listed this ring a couple of weeks ago and it instantly attracted a lot of attention so I thought I'd share with you exactly how I go about making a piece like this.

The first stage is marking the measurements on a sheet of copper metal.
I use a red sharpie because the red shows up but not as obviously as green or blue. This makes it much easier to clean off later, although soldering pieces removes the pen anyway. Once the sheet is marked I can cut out the strip of copper.

I heat the strip of copper and cool it down again so it is more flexible and easier to bend. I then shape it around the correct-sized section of my ring mandrel and cut off the extra copper.

Next I have to file the cut edges to make sure they fit flush with each other and to make sure they are clean ready for soldering.

I curl the corners of the ring before soldering because otherwise the join would solder all the way along and the corners would be stuck. Once the ring is soldered I may come back to the corners and curl them a little more.






Once the corners are safely out of the way I solder the middle section, that still meets, so it is permanently joined. At this stage the ring is really pliable so I will put it back onto the mandrel and neaten the curve so it is smooth.

I then file the ring again, this time to soften the edges and uncurled corners so they wont scratch anyone.


The final stage is to place the finished ring in the tumbler with steel shot which bashes against it and toughens it back up, as well as returning the copper colour and buffing it to a smooth shine.

The finished result