Thin sheet wax was used to begin creating the peridot ring. Surface design was added a flat sheet by using a hot soldering iron and placing each shape individually onto the wax. The wax was then cut into a strip and shaped over a ring mandrel into the appropriate sized ring.

The wax model was then "sprued" up onto a wax tree for the next step. At the bottom left of this page is a picture of many items sprued up into the form of a wax tree.

The wax was then "cast" into a material called "investment" which has the consistency of pancake batter at first but hardens up to a solid very quickly. A furnace was used to "burn out" the wax and leave only it's impression in the solid investment material within the flask.

The flask was then placed into a centrifuge and molten sterling silver was slung into the voids left by the burned out wax. At the bottom of this page are pictures of the metal being melted into a crucible inside the centrifuge and the centrifuge spinning. Also shown are the flasks inside the oven.

The sterling silver forms are now removed from the flask and investment material. The rings on the sprue tree are pictured below. To the right is a photo of three unfinished rings which have been cut from the "tree."




The 8 x 6mm peridot which will be set onto the ring

A flex-shaft with grinding bit was used along with hand filing to remove the extra silver from the sprue tree. The ring was shaped on a ring mandrel to obtain the round shape.


More shaping and polishing were done to fit the sterling stone setting onto the ring shank. The setting was soldered onto the shank the ring cleaned with 'pickling' compound.



The maker's mark and metal content marks added.

More hand sanding and polishing was done, then ultimately the peridot stone was set.






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