The Ring Cycle: Exploration in Historic Silver Jewelry Techniques

This enchanting weekend workshop will take students through a journey of Form and Function while implementing ancient jewelry techniques! It begins by learning the process of shaping historic spiral and looped rings from base metal, a way to practice working with the qualities of annealed fine silver, without the expense or worry!

Students will then move on to basic silver forging by constructing an age-old form of Norse currency known as the “Money Ring”, a simple, square cross-sectioned bracelet. Through making this form the student will learn drawing and tapering of the silver from ingot to completion.

The class will then take their silver forging skills further as they learn to make a Gotland Ring, a wide banded ring with a dramatic tapered shank morphing into a wrapped closure. The making of this ring further hones planning, forging, and tapering skills by hammer drawing thin tendrils of silver from the main body of the ring.

Finally, the class converges with students forging a length of silver wire from a small ingot in order to make one of the rings from the first portion of the class. By the end of the class, student will have a good working knowledge of silversmithing, hammer drawing and tapering from scratch, and proper annealing techniques for fine silver, in addition to the intriguing historic account behind each of the techniques. And students will of course take home with them a hoard of jewelry pieces made by their very hands, including rings of various historic styles and a bracelet.

Basic hammering skills / experience are required to participate in this hammer-intensive workshop (planishing, hammer texturing, hammer forming over ring mandrels, etc.)! 

Scholarships for this class are available through the Metalwerx Course Scholarship Program! Apply here.