Simple Things from Simple Minds

[SVD]

Ok, so the ever-indulgent wife got me the set of inside ring holders for Christmas (after noting that she didn't have any engraved rings).

So, we hit Wal-Mart for an inexpensive sterling silver ring and I did some fiddling about with some brass practice rings I had around. I came up with a nice little 'flower' (more on that later) and a simple overall design. Finally got a chance to do it last weekend, by which time she'd pretty much forgotten about the whole thing so it turned out to be a nice surprise.

One of the reasons for the delay in getting to trying a ring was that I had an idea for a simple layout tool for rings and had to wait until I had a chance to create it.

The first two pictures are that tool (some assembly required). Print them off at 2" x 3" and laminate them together (hint, if you lay them out with a long side touching you can cut them out as one piece and fold it in half). I happen to have a laminator and the business card size pouches but if you don't the local office-supply or copy place will.

I decided that 12 flowers would work well on a small ring (she has tiny fingers) so I laid the ring over the 12-segment side, used the concentric circles to get it centered and then used a Sharpie to mark the segments.
The layout 'tool' allows you to pick any fraction of 12 or 16 sections as appropriate to your design.

I took more time doing the flowers than I probably needed to. For each one I daubed some clay on the segment, used my dividers to mark the ring's center line, used a #4 bead punch for the center and then used my HandyTemplate to mark a 5/32" circle around the center. The circle was just to help me keep the 'petals' consistent in size and probably wasn't needful but I wanted this to come out nice.

The 'flowers' are a very simple design that I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with. The only work when very small, of course, but they're quick and cute.

Bead punch or otherwise make your center and then just do 8 little diamond shaped plunge cuts to form the petals. I did mine in this order:
5 1 6
3 * 4
7 2 8
because it helped me get them neatly spaced and aligned.

The ever-indulgent wife must like it - she's been wearing it since I gave it to her. That's why I don't have a good picture yet, just a quick snap of it on her finger.

[D.DOUGLAS]

Hey Steve. Those are pretty cool little flowers. Touch the leaves together and scribe a couple lines along each end and then you would have a nice border also. Ok lets really get crazy and set some little diamonds in the centers. You could do alot with these little flower elements.

[SVD]

Yeah, I'm thinking of trying a background of a diamond grid with a flower in each diamond. I think it'd look nice and rich without being very complicated.