My First Wedding Ring a Success!

I can't tell you how flattered I was when my friend Steve called me up one day and said, "I'd like you to make me a ring."  I actually wasn't thinking he meant wedding ring at first, so I shrieked in excitement to find out he wanted me to make this ring for the lovely Laura Schadler.  Definitely one of the cutest couples ever and they've been dating forever....I think the love goes back to when they were 18. 

The most amazing part of this story is that I had shown Laura this enormous piece of petrified redwood that I had gotten my first year taking jewelry classes.  It was 4cm around and just gorgeous!  I knew I didn't want it for myself, but I had a feeling there would be some special use for it down the road.   She fell in love with it 3 or so years ago and wanted me to make her a ring, but at the time, she said she would have to wait and save some money up for it :)

I didn't really mean to, but I saved the stone and never showed it to anyone for years.  I had forgotten about it and put it in my stone drawer.  After Steve proposed and asked me to make Laura a ring, Laura called me and wanted to know if I still had that stone I had showed her years earlier.  I said, "You aren't going to believe it, but I still have it and I have never showed it to anyone but you." Laura was shocked and excited and asked if I could use this stone in the design of her wedding ring. 

I started working on the band, a large half round sterling silver wire formed in her size.
I made the bezel to fit the stone perfectly.
I soldered the bezel to the band and took it to this incredible hand engraver in the city.

Since Laura knew what she wanted her ring to look like, there was at least going to be one surprise from Steve-we were going to have the bottom of the bezel hand engraved with a cute illustration Laura draws of a pumpkin and a monkey. The pumpkin is Laura, the monkey is Steve.  Their initials LS + SS was also engraved.

I polished the piece, set the stone and here it is!  I think it came out really pretty and looks stunning on the Bride!