custom

Gretsch full body guitar ring

Posted by atlasjewelers on April 2, 2015

Posted in: custom design. Tagged: 6120, bigsby, Chet Atkins, custom, frets, Gretsch, guitar, ring. Leave a comment

This ring was so much fun to make. Greville, in Australia, sent me pictures of his beautiful vintage, hollow body Gretsch guitar. I really got to play with trying to nail all the details of this classic guitar in such a small space.

I knew that I wanted to get a good shine on the body of the guitar. But to do that, I would lose some of the crispiness and definition of the hardware in the buffing.

I carved the body, noting all the proportions. and I made some small hardware pieces in wax but ended up fabricating them directly in metal. It was worth carving them to see the placement of everything.

Creative license allowed me to take the fret board square down the ring. We ended up with a great squared shank and a very wearable ring. After casting the entire ring was burnished and beaten to work harden the surface. I sanded and polished the body in preparation for the hardware.

In this picture, the hand fabricated pickups, bridge and Bigsby vibrato bar have been laser welded in place. You can see the naked head stock without the tuning knobs in place yet.

In all, 17 parts were added to the main body.

The fret board was cut in with a super thin saw blade and the fret markers were properly placed.

Lastly, I hand engraved inside the ring and florentine finished the area under the body.

Thanks for sending me the picture of you with the ring, Greville!

To see more of this ring and information on having your guitar ring made, visit my web site, MusicianRings.com

Brand new-old engagement ring.

Posted by atlasjewelers on November 24, 2014

Posted in: custom design, remount, Wedding engagement rings. Tagged: band, custom, diamond, gold, remount, wedding. Leave a comment

I carved the wax model of this engagement ring to match the existing wedding band that was her mother’s. Using her stones, this new ring carries all the sentimental value and it looks like these two rings were made at the same time.

Guitar urn

Posted by atlasjewelers on October 22, 2014

Posted in: custom design. Tagged: ashes, custom, guitar, jewelery, sterling, urn. Leave a comment

Sterling silver acoustic guitar urn for ashes.

This guitar was made from a picture of a guy’s guitar. The body of the guitar is hollow and a silver plate is soldered on the back to hold in the ashes.

Very special bullet casing bracelet

Posted by atlasjewelers on October 17, 2014

Posted in: custom design. Tagged: bracelet, brass, bullet, caliber, case, custom, Jewelry, police, shell. 2 Comments

A young lady handed me a spent bullet casing and told me that she would like to make a piece of jewelry with this. She explained that it was a shell from a ceremonial gun salute at her father’s funeral. She had some ideas of what she wanted: a bracelet that was casual enough and sturdy enough to wear anywhere. His name and birth stone on one side and his birth year and the year of his passing on the reverse side.

We made plans on the design of a bracelet. I was going to solder on sterling silver jump rings, solder on a silver bezel for the citrine and attach a silver chain. But once I cut open the shell I was pleasantly surprised to find the base more solid then I thought it would be. This allowed me more options. I text her some of the proposed ideas that I came up with along the way. Like how I had thought I would have had to add a bezel to set the stone. But the brass was plenty thick enough to flush set the birth stone.

I used a tiny ball burr (0.036mm) under a 6 power microscope to engrave the letters. (The last name blurred out for privacy.)

Instead of just soldering on jump rings, I made a sterling silver ring that fit in the channel at the base of the shell. I soldered two rings on it before fitting it over and soldering the large loop In place, making it seamless, for a great appearance. By using a necklace for the chain, I had the length to double up the chain to give it enough thickness to look proportionate, design wise, yet still be feminine.

The last picture is the date side which still has the primer cap and manufacturing stamps in which I added the dates.

Not only is this a cool looking bracelet using a bullet shell, but the meaning behind this one is so awesome.

Ruby and diamond remount.

Posted by atlasjewelers on October 4, 2014

Posted in: custom design, remount. Tagged: band, custom, diamond, gold, Jewelry, micro, remount, ring, ruby. 1 Comment

This custom remount pretty much kept the same classic design as the original (not pictured) but the goal was to do a more lighter, feminine version in white gold. The micro prong set diamonds helped lightening up the feel of the ring from the original bulky 3 channel design. We also opened up the shoulders of the ring to make it more airy. We did a cool square shank and cast it in super white 14k gold alloy that does not need rhodium plating.

The making of a snare drum ring

Posted by atlasjewelers on September 22, 2014

Posted in: custom design. Tagged: 14k, band, custom, drum, ring, snare, wedding. Leave a comment

You can check my whole website dedicated to drum and guitar rings.
http://musicianrings.com
But here is how I made my last order:

I use a Wolf Wax attachment to turn a #35 foredom hand piece into a mini router. I first ream out the tube to the desired finger size and then shape the wax to a plain basic band.

By changing the large cylinder bur to a wheel bur, I milled the step of the “rim” of the hoop. I Flipped the wax over and repeat the cut.

I marked out 8 equal lines for the placement of the lugs and tension rods.

For this design, I carved the lugs in the wax. By doing the rims, shell and lugs in one piece, it dramatically cut down the labor of assembling individual parts in metal. (Which I have done on some drum multi colored gold versions.)

Here is the finished wax after texturing the shell with a 1.0 mm ball bur for the finish the customer custom ordered.

The wax model is sprewed on to a rubber base and a metal cylinder is placed over that.

A special plaster is poured into the flask. When the plaster hardens the rubber base is removed, exposing the ends of the wax sprew. The flask is placed in a kiln. As the temperature rises, the wax melts out, leaving a cavity of exactly what was carved.
The molten metal is “shot” into the flask with the aid of a centrifuge.

Here is a flask just after casting.

When you dunk the mold in water, the plaster breaks down.

Here is the rough casting with the sprew and “button”. You always need to carefully calculate how much metal you use to cast with. Too much, and molten metal would go flying out after overfilling the mold. Too little, and the ring is incomplete or plagued with porosity. (Small voids)

The ring is cut off of the button and goes through a process of sanding and polishing. The button can be used in the next casting along with the addition of more new metal.