Ring info

[psb34psb]

Anybody know how to make glass rings? Where to get equipment or info? Thanks

[krixbeeble]

hell-o! so far, i have kind of taught myself using tutorials and such for lampworking... so how i, personally, have made rings is using oversized mandrels. i am not sure their actual name, but they are a regular sized mandrel, w/ a big hunk of rounded metal at the end. --------------[\\\\\\] kind of like that. excuse me for not having real pictures! but you dip it in your bead release as you would a regular mandrel, same heating process as well, then just create a ring of glass. you can decorate as you wish. 'm sure there are many other ways, but to my knowledge and testing, this works just fine. i got these at a local glass shop. but i'm sure you could find them online on one of these associate sites to lampwork etc.
good luck

[Cosmo]

I make mine out of boro, so if you are making it with soft glass, it may not work as well. These sound sort of confusing. Sorry, I haven't taken any photos of it yet. Maybe soon.

Get a length of rod/cane to be used as the ring itself. Punty up to the center of it so it looks like a T. Using a soft flame, rotate so that the punty rod is pointing straight up. When the ring rod gets soft, it will bend down into a U shape. Set it aside.

Make the piece you want for the "gem" of the ring. Attach a punty to the front of it. Heat the back, then take the piece you made the back of the ring with and stick it to it. Remove the punty from the U shaped piece. Heat the entire ring and use an octagonal reamer to shape the band. Once it is shaped, remove the punty from the front, fire polish, and stick it in the kiln.

Again, pictures would work much better, but alas, I don't have any now.

[psb34psb]

Thanks for the information. Not sure if I'm up to that level just yet, but I might give it a try.