Engagement/Wedding Rings
When I walked in the door after work on Friday, Josh asked me to marry him! We've been engaged for 2 years, and the wedding is in 20 days, but our engagement rings seem to finally be done and he'd just picked them up from the jeweler.
All about the rings I made myself:
Josh didn't surprise me with a ring when we got engaged. In fact, we both surprised ourselves and each other when we decided we wanted to get married. We decided right away that we wanted only one ring each that we'd wear as both engagement and wedding ring, since we feel that it was the engagement that marked the beginning of our commitment to each other, not the wedding. We also wanted rings that matched (honestly, I don't see a lot of point in having rings if they don't match--I don't care about showing the world that we're taken unless we're also showing who we are taken by). And finally, Josh thought it would be really cool if we made the rings ourselves, and being ever eager to please him, I took up the challenge of figuring out how to make rings for us.
My inspiration (other than Josh) came from this website: http://www.handwovenbands.com/ , which we found shortly before our engagement when we were helping a friend shop for engagement rings for his now-wife. We knew the moment we saw them that if we ever decided to get married, these were going to be the rings for us... only hopefully made by us. We ended up choosing a design not quite like any of Todd Alan's designs. Josh really likes silver/white gold/platinum, and I really like yellow gold and copper/rose gold, so we also ended up going for three color rings as a compromise. At first I worked with craft wire (which you can buy at Michaels or Walmart and is copper wire with paint on it) and while it proved to be good practice, the paint rubbed off within 1 week of wear. The next several attempts were with 14 kt gold-filled wire (which is still copper in the middle, but has a pretty thick coating of gold). We chose gold-filled wire because (1) we were really short on cash, and (2) we thought solid gold would be too soft for our design. We were a little disappointed at the contrast between the three colors of gold, but used it anyway. The first set of rings from the gold filled wire turned out okay, but I soldered them closed with electrical solder and my soldering skills are pretty lacking anyway, so we ended up with a big, ugly, gray joint. Our following attempt was with some gold solder and a butane torch, but the butane torch turned the wire black, and we couldn't get the gold solder to work anyway. For the next attempt, we used the gold-filled wire and had a professional jeweler solder them closed for us. We had to look all over for a jeweler who would solder them for us because the heat used to solder or weld solid gold jewelry will ruin gold filled jewelry (probably the same way the butane torch did), and apparently most jewelers aren't equipped to work with gold-filled jewelry. Anyway, those rings came out beautiful and we thought we were done--this was about 11 months ago. Unfortunately after less than a year of wear, the gold started to wear off and the copper underneath started to show through! Fortunately by this time we were both employed and no pressed for cash, so we decided to start over with solid gold. We also went for 18 kt gold to increase the yellow-ness of the yellow gold, and palladium white gold to increase the whiteness of the white gold (as a note, palladium white gold is actually pretty gray compared to white gold and sterling silver, but you never need to get it re-coated with whatever it is they coat white gold with and while it's a little more expensive than normal white gold, it's still a lot cheaper than platinum). Since 18 kt gold is supposed to be really soft, the first thing I did when the gold arrived was to try to harden it. I read online that you can make a gold wire harder by running a polishing cloth along it, so I did that... and I figured that if once was good, many times was better. Well, to make a long story short, I made the gold much too hard to work with and it kept breaking, especially the rose gold. We ended up needing to buy a whole new batch of solid gold wire, this time requesting the softest they had, and at their suggestion getting 14 kt gold for the rose gold since apparently 18 kt rose gold is really brittle. I braided the rings out of that and brought them to a local jeweler who did an amazing job on them. I am so happy with them, hopefully these ones will actually last forever.
All told, this is how much we spent on the rings:
First try (craft wire) -- $10, lasted about 1 week
Second try (gold filled wire with electrical solder) -- $70, lasted around 1/2 of a year, but looked kind of crappy.
Third try (leftover gold filled wire with trying to solder ourselves with gold solder) -- $50, didn't work at all.
Fourth try (leftover gold filled wire soldered by a jeweler) -- $40, lasted almost a year, but gold started to wear through.
Fifth try (solid gold) -- $150, didn't work, ordered stuff that was too hard and brittle.
Sixth try (got new softer rose gold with leftover solid gold) -- $40, the rose gold was fine to work with, but the new design we tried was no good and we didn't have enough of the other colors remaining, plus the other colors were still to hard.
Final rings (new softer gold in all three colors) -- $220 + $20 to have a jeweler weld them closed
Total: $600
Our ring ceremony for our wedding (because the standard ring ceremony didn't seem to fit us or the rings):
Joshua [reading to guests]:
The traditional wedding ring is a circle. It is round like the sun, and the arms that embrace. It is without beginning, middle, or end to symbolize never ending love and unity. This describes only a part of what our rings are.
We started making these rings over two years ago when we first promised each other we'd marry. It took us almost two years to finally complete them. They required many attempts and much patience to complete, as well as compromises over the design. Along the way, we were discouraged many times and needed much support and encouragement to continue. Eventually, we also needed to seek the help of a trained jeweler to close the circle.
The rings were woven together out of seven strands of gold, as our lives have been woven together and will continue to be woven together. They contain slight imperfections and asymmetries, just as our lives and our love sometimes contain slight imperfections and asymmetries. They do contain both beginnings and ends, joined together to symbolize the cycle of continual renewal and rebirth in love and in life.
Josh [to Mary]: Let us wear them always as a reminder that love sometimes requires much patience and perseverance, but the results are beautiful and well worth the effort.
Mary [to Josh]: Let us always remember that the only way to achieve a truly unending love will be through the constant renewal of our love for each other.
Together [to each other]: Let us work on our love for each other so it may grow ever stronger for as long as we both shall live.
These are full resolution crops. Click for full picture.
The left bottom left most is the new ring with 18 and 14 kt solid gold, the middle is the gold filled ring finished by the jeweler that I wore for a year and has worn through (it's a bit hard to see, I know), the last is the ring I tried to solder closed myself (and wore for about half a year).
x-posted: weddingplans, our planning journal
All about the rings I made myself:
Josh didn't surprise me with a ring when we got engaged. In fact, we both surprised ourselves and each other when we decided we wanted to get married. We decided right away that we wanted only one ring each that we'd wear as both engagement and wedding ring, since we feel that it was the engagement that marked the beginning of our commitment to each other, not the wedding. We also wanted rings that matched (honestly, I don't see a lot of point in having rings if they don't match--I don't care about showing the world that we're taken unless we're also showing who we are taken by). And finally, Josh thought it would be really cool if we made the rings ourselves, and being ever eager to please him, I took up the challenge of figuring out how to make rings for us.
My inspiration (other than Josh) came from this website: http://www.handwovenbands.com/ , which we found shortly before our engagement when we were helping a friend shop for engagement rings for his now-wife. We knew the moment we saw them that if we ever decided to get married, these were going to be the rings for us... only hopefully made by us. We ended up choosing a design not quite like any of Todd Alan's designs. Josh really likes silver/white gold/platinum, and I really like yellow gold and copper/rose gold, so we also ended up going for three color rings as a compromise. At first I worked with craft wire (which you can buy at Michaels or Walmart and is copper wire with paint on it) and while it proved to be good practice, the paint rubbed off within 1 week of wear. The next several attempts were with 14 kt gold-filled wire (which is still copper in the middle, but has a pretty thick coating of gold). We chose gold-filled wire because (1) we were really short on cash, and (2) we thought solid gold would be too soft for our design. We were a little disappointed at the contrast between the three colors of gold, but used it anyway. The first set of rings from the gold filled wire turned out okay, but I soldered them closed with electrical solder and my soldering skills are pretty lacking anyway, so we ended up with a big, ugly, gray joint. Our following attempt was with some gold solder and a butane torch, but the butane torch turned the wire black, and we couldn't get the gold solder to work anyway. For the next attempt, we used the gold-filled wire and had a professional jeweler solder them closed for us. We had to look all over for a jeweler who would solder them for us because the heat used to solder or weld solid gold jewelry will ruin gold filled jewelry (probably the same way the butane torch did), and apparently most jewelers aren't equipped to work with gold-filled jewelry. Anyway, those rings came out beautiful and we thought we were done--this was about 11 months ago. Unfortunately after less than a year of wear, the gold started to wear off and the copper underneath started to show through! Fortunately by this time we were both employed and no pressed for cash, so we decided to start over with solid gold. We also went for 18 kt gold to increase the yellow-ness of the yellow gold, and palladium white gold to increase the whiteness of the white gold (as a note, palladium white gold is actually pretty gray compared to white gold and sterling silver, but you never need to get it re-coated with whatever it is they coat white gold with and while it's a little more expensive than normal white gold, it's still a lot cheaper than platinum). Since 18 kt gold is supposed to be really soft, the first thing I did when the gold arrived was to try to harden it. I read online that you can make a gold wire harder by running a polishing cloth along it, so I did that... and I figured that if once was good, many times was better. Well, to make a long story short, I made the gold much too hard to work with and it kept breaking, especially the rose gold. We ended up needing to buy a whole new batch of solid gold wire, this time requesting the softest they had, and at their suggestion getting 14 kt gold for the rose gold since apparently 18 kt rose gold is really brittle. I braided the rings out of that and brought them to a local jeweler who did an amazing job on them. I am so happy with them, hopefully these ones will actually last forever.
All told, this is how much we spent on the rings:
First try (craft wire) -- $10, lasted about 1 week
Second try (gold filled wire with electrical solder) -- $70, lasted around 1/2 of a year, but looked kind of crappy.
Third try (leftover gold filled wire with trying to solder ourselves with gold solder) -- $50, didn't work at all.
Fourth try (leftover gold filled wire soldered by a jeweler) -- $40, lasted almost a year, but gold started to wear through.
Fifth try (solid gold) -- $150, didn't work, ordered stuff that was too hard and brittle.
Sixth try (got new softer rose gold with leftover solid gold) -- $40, the rose gold was fine to work with, but the new design we tried was no good and we didn't have enough of the other colors remaining, plus the other colors were still to hard.
Final rings (new softer gold in all three colors) -- $220 + $20 to have a jeweler weld them closed
Total: $600
Our ring ceremony for our wedding (because the standard ring ceremony didn't seem to fit us or the rings):
Joshua [reading to guests]:
The traditional wedding ring is a circle. It is round like the sun, and the arms that embrace. It is without beginning, middle, or end to symbolize never ending love and unity. This describes only a part of what our rings are.
We started making these rings over two years ago when we first promised each other we'd marry. It took us almost two years to finally complete them. They required many attempts and much patience to complete, as well as compromises over the design. Along the way, we were discouraged many times and needed much support and encouragement to continue. Eventually, we also needed to seek the help of a trained jeweler to close the circle.
The rings were woven together out of seven strands of gold, as our lives have been woven together and will continue to be woven together. They contain slight imperfections and asymmetries, just as our lives and our love sometimes contain slight imperfections and asymmetries. They do contain both beginnings and ends, joined together to symbolize the cycle of continual renewal and rebirth in love and in life.
Josh [to Mary]: Let us wear them always as a reminder that love sometimes requires much patience and perseverance, but the results are beautiful and well worth the effort.
Mary [to Josh]: Let us always remember that the only way to achieve a truly unending love will be through the constant renewal of our love for each other.
Together [to each other]: Let us work on our love for each other so it may grow ever stronger for as long as we both shall live.
These are full resolution crops. Click for full picture.
The left bottom left most is the new ring with 18 and 14 kt solid gold, the middle is the gold filled ring finished by the jeweler that I wore for a year and has worn through (it's a bit hard to see, I know), the last is the ring I tried to solder closed myself (and wore for about half a year).
x-posted: weddingplans, our planning journal