Tag Archives: sterling silver ring

Grassy Green Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

My lovely friend Kylie, from Raw Toys, arranged for her birthday present this year to be one of my drusy pieces! I feel very honoured.

Kylie thought my usual rings might be a bit too chunky for her because she has small hands, so asked would I be able to make her a ring a bit smaller than my usual style. Of course I was totally happy to oblige! I sourced her a special lovely small green piece of drusy.

Kylie is really happy with the way this ring turned out (she even blogged a little bit about that 🙂 ), and that makes me feel happy, too. I love being able to make one of a kind pieces for lovely people!

Thank you so much, Kylie! And for any lovers of beautiful wooden toys and puzzles, head over to Kylie’s MadeIt Shop or her Raw Toys blog and see her gorgeous work. It’s well worth a visit.

Cherry Creek Jasper and Sterling Silver Ring

I came across this divine piece of Cherry Creek Jasper a while ago, and just finished making it into a ring for myself.

The design was partly inspired by my dear friend and classmate, Jane. She makes beautiful rings, and her shanks are often very squared off at the ends.

I love the very organic nature of the stone. Jasper is so hugely versatile!

Burgundy Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Rusty, the artisan behind the beautiful ‘Vance’ guitars, commissioned me to create a ring for his daughter’s birthday.

He chose the stone from my collection, then sent me a copy of a chart on which he’d measured the size of a ring from her ‘little gripper’. (Hehe, ‘little gripper’ made me laugh when Rusty send that to me!)

It was such a pleasure to set this beautiful stone for someone lovely to wear.

This is one of Rusty’s guitars: exquisite workmanship, and (apparently, from all who tell me) totally awesome to play. If you’re interested in owning one of these beauties, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with him!

Vance Custom Guitars

Thanks so much for the honour, Rusty. I really appreciate it!

Lodolite Garden Quartz and Sterling Silver Ring

I bought two divine lodolite bullet shaped cabs a while ago, and I spent some time contemplating how to do them justice. I was waiting for inspiration to strike me, and it eventually did!

Lodolite is commonly known as Garden Quartz.

It is clear quartz with inclusions, which look like a landscape scene – garden or underwater garden!

I feel the organic vine-like nature of the ring complements the beautiful stone.

I’m looking forward to making another ring with my second gorgeous piece of Lodolite!

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Sterling Silver Smokestack Ring

For a while now, I’ve had a design for a ring in my head. In part inspired by the power station we drive past a few times a week; and in part inspired by castles and towers, minarets and mosques, factories and smokestacks – I seem to have quite an industrial/architectural theme running through my head lately.

The stones are Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Briolettes, which I turned on their ends. Divine colour, don’t you think?

I learned how to flange chenier, which was fun! The briolettes remind me of puffs of smoke.

I have some little pear shaped free-form orange carnelians in my gemstone stash, and I think there may be another ring in this style coming along in the future! What do you think?

Sterling Silver and Garnet Crown Set Ring

The very last piece that I made in my training course last year was this sterling silver and garnet crown set ring. It’s a bit of a departure from my normal style, but I like it!

I specifically chose a garnet because my lovely sister who lives on the other side of the world has just turned 50, and she likes garnets.

Happiest of birthdays, dearest Christina! xxx

Flipside Fiesta Raffle Winner!

As I mentioned in my previous post on Flipside Circus, I was happy to donate a custom made handcrafted sterling silver and drusy agate ring for the recent Flipside Fiesta fundraising raffle.

John was the lucky winner, and he unveiled the prize for his wife Robby at Christmas time. I recently visited them both in their lovely home, and Robby chose her favourite gemstone from my collection – it wasn’t drusy after all, but I didn’t mind a bit!

This gorgeous stone is Unakite – I’ll do an in-depth post about that later. For now, it’s a natural stone, and isn’t it pretty!!!

Congratulations, John and Robby, well done on supporting such a great and worthy cause; and Robby, I hope you enjoy wearing your ring!!

Peridot Triangle Ring and Earrings Set

My cousin commissioned me to make a set of earrings and a ring for his lovely girlfriend.

The design needed to be small, with a green stone, and a little bit unusual. We Facebook messaged back and forth, and together, we came up with a design which incorporated those concepts!

I hope Laura liked them, and what a nice partner she has!!! 🙂

Grey Moonstone Dome Lidded Ring

The culmination of our year’s worth of Silversmith training was a weekend session in which we were expected to create a complex piece which we had previously designed. We had to hand in a rendering, an art drawing, a technical drawing with notes and a set of procedural notes before creating the piece over the space of 15 hours.

I designed this dome lidded ring featuring a grey cat’s eye moonstone cabochon, which can be worn either with the lid on or off. I received a mark of 92.2% for this piece. I’m pleased with it!

What is Drusy Agate?

The term “drusy” comes from the word “druse”, which refers to a rock surface (usually a cavity) covered with tiny individual crystals, such as are found inside geodes or in larger pockets of mineral deposits.

Drusy crystals take hundreds or even thousands of years to form. They form as molten rock begins to cool with trapped gases inside. The gases cause gaps in the rock. As ground water carrying dissolved silica is forced into a porous area of the rock for century after century, tiny crystals form on the surfaces or in cavities of the rock, forming a blanket of crystals.

These rocks are split open to reveal the crystals within. Cabochons are then cut from the surface of the rock capturing the drusy elements.

The most commonly found drusy is quartz (agate or chalcedony), but many other species can exist in this form.

Naturally colored quartz drusy is found almost exclusively in muted colors such as white, grey, tan and cream. Many quartz pieces, though, are dyed black or other vivid colors such as purple, red, green and blue, and some are coated with titanium or other metallic vapor which creates various iridescent finishes. You can read more about gemstone treatments here.

I love working with drusy, because as well as being incredibly beautiful, no piece is ever the same!

Some of the pieces shown here are available for sale in my online shop. I am currently only working with natural stones, which I am happy to custom-make into rings or pendants similar to the ones shown here if you would like one. Do contact me for a quote, won’t you!!

the silver forge

jewellery handcrafted by ruthie gray