"Wonder Twin Powers Activate" Ring

Materials:

large glass disk shaped bead
- approximately 1 cm x 3 cm
20-gauge silver sheet
- cut 1 cm wide (for ring)
1" sterling disk
sterling tubing*
24-gauge silver sheet
- to cut out little designs for the top of the ring
5mm stone cabochon (citrine, turquoise and peridot)
5mm sterling bezel cup, serrated
14-gauge sterling wire
files and/or sandpaper in varying grits
liver of sulfur in heated crock-pot
ring sizing mandrel
glass mandrel
mini mashers
stringer glass
torch
safety glasses
kiln
jeweler's coping saw
drill press and small bits
needle nose pliers
half round pliers
2 pair of tweezers
solder
flux
small brush
glass bead release
graphite pad
ring sizing ruler
permanent marker
vise
rawhide mallet
center punch
hammer
dapping block
clamp
rubber gloves
wire brush
epoxy glue
bezel rocker
wire cutters
*Sterling tubing should be small enough to fit through the hole of the bead but large enough to ALMOST fit snugly (you want the bead to be able to spin).

1. Dip a glass mandrel in bead release. Light the torch and heat the mandrel in the flame. Heat a rod of red glass in the flame and wrap it onto the mandrel. Keep turning the mandrel layering the glass until it forms a disc (figure A).

2. Flatten the glass disc with mini-mashers. Roll the glass disc on a graphite pad to even out the shape. Add dots, glass lines and a border to the glass bead with various colors of glass stringer (figure B). Place the bead in the kiln to reduce the temperature gradually.

3. Solder a 1-inch length of 14-gauge wire at a 90-degree angle to the back of the bezel cup (figure C). Pickle in a heated liver of sulfur solution. Rinse in water and dry.

4. Anneal a strip of silver sheet—which means heating it with a torch so it will bend more easily. Pick it up with tweezers and place it in a bowl of water. Measure it for the correct ring length using a ring sizing ruler and permanent marker (figure D). Saw it to the correct length and file the ends flat.

5. Crudely bend the silver strip to form a ring. Even out the ends with half round pliers (figure E). Wiggle the ring back and forth until the ends meet and are level with each other.

6. Using wire cutters cut a pallion of solder large enough to travel up the height of the ring when melted. Lay the ring on the pallion, apply flux, solder the seam together and pickle the ring in the heated liver of sulfur solution. Rinse in water and dry (figure F).

7. Mount a ring mandrel in a vise and tightly fit the ring onto the mandrel. Pound the ring with a rawhide mallet. Keep turning the ring and sliding it further and further up the mandrel until it is perfectly round (figure G).

8. Smooth out the edges inside and outside.