It’s ring week here at the studio!

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to develop an original method for constructing a single bead ring, so this week I spent some time playing around with a couple of ideas.  The one I teach in my course at George Brown College is Mavis Llewellyn’s One Bead Ring (published in The Wire Artist Jeweller, September 1999).  According to her daughter Susan, Mavis developed the design back in the late 70s-early 80s as a quick-to-make-project to sell at shows.

Other single bead ring patterns are easier to make (i.e. 3-minute ring), but the shanks (to my eye) are sloppy looking.  In square wire, they often look tortured. If you’re looking for something quick and dirty to sell for $8 and you work “organically”, then Bob’s Your Uncle…

The thing I like most about Mavis’ design is how elegant it looks, especially the shank.  The ones I produced this week haven’t achieved anything resembling elegance or consistency yet, but I’m happy to have made progress.