Make a Glass Cupcake Ring

You can have your dessert and wear it too with this delicate, cupcake-topped sterling silver ring.

Filed under: Jewelry Making, How To, Crafts

Jewelry designer Holly Cruise of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, demonstrates how to create a whimsical glass cupcake ring that looks good enough to eat! This project should be completed in a well-ventilated room and preferably one with an exhaust fan.

Materials Needed:

soft glass rods, assorted colors
soft glass stringer
sterling silver ring
two-part 5-minute epoxy
clay sludge
steel mandrel
oxygen propane flame-working torch
oxygen tank
propane tank

graphite paddle
steel tweezers
tungsten rod
electric wok filled with vermiculite
electric kiln
diamond-tip bead reamer
glass jar filled with vermiculite
didymium safety glasses

Steps:

1. Dip the steel mandrel into the clay sludge. Place the opposite end (handle) into a jar of vermiculite. Let dry.

2. Turn on the oxygen and propane tanks and the exhaust fan. Turn on the wok filled with vermiculite.

3. Wear didymium safety glasses. Light the torch by turning on the propane and sparking it with an igniter. Then gently turn on the oxygen until the flame is just right.

4. To make glass stringers for sprinkles, gently heat the tip of a glass rod until it is glowing and molten. Pull the molten blob into a long string of glass with tweezers. Let cool and set aside for topping the cupcake. Repeat this step several times using different colors.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-

5. Heat the tip of the clay-coated steel mandrel in the flame.

6. Simultaneously heat up the tip of a white glass rod. Introduce the glass into the flame slowly, waving it back and forth to avoid cracking the glass.

7. Once the white glass has a molten blob at the end, slowly wrap the molten glass around the heated mandrel tip. Repeat this several times until there is a mass the size of a pinky fingertip.