Voideye Ring (unfinished yet)
|
Last year I got interested in jewellery making and I signed up for a course in one of our community colleges. Well where I am living it is called "Volkshochschule" but I digress...
My mind was teeming with ideas for rings that I wanted to make, most of them video game inspired. Since I slayed my fair share of Diablos and assorted villain in the wretched land of Wraeclast during my life there was a lot of designs to choose from. But as it would be my first experience with jewelry making I wanted to start small with a forgiving first piece that should nevertheless be memorable enough to hold on to. Enter the Voideye ring from the Invasion/Ambush League which fit this description perfectly. http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Voideye I love the design with the big dead eye that is hinting at the better days this ring has seen as it probably once was adorned with a huge gleaming stone. Now this empty hole will hold a skill gem and amplifies it manifold with it´s years of experience that the ring has to offer as it has witnessed much over the years. A fact that is also reflected in the rusted appearance and the somewhat broken band of the ring. This really old and used look makes it a very good choice for learning your first steps with the tools as any mistake you make just contributes to the rugged and ancient look. So without further ado, here is the result (sorry for the bad pics, my camera skills are lackluster).   I tried to get a pic with the same perspective as the ingame artwork but as you can see poor lighting and my grubby fingers destroyed the a bit :-D More pics
Spoiler
  In the end I was both pleased how well I did and disappointed that it was not as perfect as I envisioned it in the beginning. Unfortunately I did not document the entire process of the making of this ring but in the end it´s the result that counts. Anyway here is a little elaboration on how I did it all.
Spoiler
Before working on the metal I copied the design of the artwork to a small piece of paper. I counted/estimated 7 sections on the original band of the ring and worked out a design to fit my index finger.
I started out using a 1mm thick sheet of brass (in hindsight copper would have been the better option to get the colour right) that I cut down to a strip of 6,5cm x 1,7cm.  After I used an engraving tool, a fine saw and files to get the desired look on the band of the ring I drilled a small hole in the top and used the saw to get the base hole where the eye would be later. I did the same with another small square of brass that I would then solder onto the strip to raise the thickness and to provide some material to work with. Soldering went really well there.  Then I used the engraving tool again to work on the eye and the surrounding area. After using some special pliers to bend the ring I soldered it shut, threw it in an acid bath and removed some of the excess soldering material. This step was rushed as I was running out of time resulting in a very poor solder area. Really awful unfortunately. The ring has another big flaw as I did not bend the top of the ring with the eye in it. A flat inner surface makes for a really bad ring... Since then I tried to work on the ring at home with a mandrel but after annealing and a little hammer time the soldering broke. So now the ring has a more original appereance but also needs to be resoldered If I ever get around to it I will post the results here All in all it was a lot of fun and very enlightening to do this project. I have since moved on to making rings out of coins but I will most likely make other rings inspired by games, this was just the first step und stumble. PS: some thoughts for a better version -use copper instead of brass -get soldering material that matches in colour with the material -improve soldering technique -bend the eye socket part as well | |
|
Nicely done!
It may not have turned out how you envisioned it but it's still pretty damn sweet! If this is just the beginning, I look forward to seeing your future projects. :) Just a lowly standard player. May RNGesus be with you.
| |
|
Wp.
Neden yaşıyorsun?
|
