One of my very good friends asked me to make her a silver ring with blue enamel. 

I began by marking out the sheet silver. She has very small fingers (I’m making this ring in a uk size I for her) I cut the main part of the ring from flat sheet sterling silver.

I also cut three pieces of silver wire to the same length as the sheet silver. Next I soldered the wire to the flat piece using enamelling solder. It is important to use specific enamelling solder otherwise the piece would fall apart once in the kiln later on 

Once the wires were soldered on I hammered the ring into a circular shape and joined the ends to make a complete ring, taking care to match up the centre wire so that the join is nice and neat. 

The next stage was to clean up the ring as much as possible and finish off the edges so that it was all ready for the enamel. 

Here are the 

two rings on top of the kiln waiting for the enamel to dry completely before I put them in the kiln. I use powdered enamel which I wash and grind in a mortar and pestle. I then apply it to the piece using a small paintbrush and a cocktail stick. Once the area to be enamelled is completely covered it is then important to let the enamel dry out. Any water left on the piece when you put it in the kiln can cause the enamel to crack and fly off! 


I usually leave my pieces in the kiln for 2 mins on 820 degrees celcious. The enamel goes through a lot of colour changes as it cools and this can be quite a nail biting few minutes! 


I fired these two rings for a second time, pickling and cleaning up in between firings. The enamel I used was LJET217 (light blue) and LJET330 (dark blue) which are both safe to use in pickle. Then the usual polish and clean up for silver and they are ready for their new owners.

My pieces are hallmarked at the London Assay Office, where they are tested and marked with the type of metal they are made of (sterling, .925 silver in this case) and also with my makers stamp and a date stamp. 
It was a very sunny day so it made photographing these pieces quite difficult as they are very reflective. But I love how they have turned out and the shades of blue are gorgeous 🙂