I was sent pictures of a classic Tama steel snare. I carved this ring as a one piece wax with shell, rims and lugs combined. After casting, I laser welded the tension rods on. 
View more of my made to order drum rings at
Www.musicianrings.com
wedding
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This customer wanted a vintage look with hand engraving for this remounting of her sapphires and diamonds. I love using stones with sentimental value in new designs. It can carry on memories and stories.
I have really enjoyed learning hand engraving techniques. It has always fascinated me. I hope to continue to learn and explore this facet of jewelry making.
This was an exciting drum ring commission for me. I have been doing custom jewelry for 24 years. Atlas Jewelers is a trusted part of our community and I am happy and blessed to be creating jewelry here in my town. I primarily meet every person that I make a ring for and I get to know them through the process of making them jewelry. But Steve contacted me via the web and was one of my first commissions since the launch of MusicianRings.com, and I probably will never meet him. Steve is highly passionate about drumming and was starting a new chapter in his life by getting married. I am thrilled to see that my musician rings, that I love so much, are reaching out so much further than our neighborhood. I have since made guitar rings and sent them out to Germany and Australia. Totally mind blowing to me.
We discussed the many options and planned out the ring. I carved a wax, what was to become the shell and rims, as one piece and also carved a long bar which would eventually be cut up to be the lugs.
Each was cast in 14K super white gold.
I sanded and polished the comfort fit band to a mirror finish.
Each lug was cut, filed and polished.
The 10 lugs were polished, positioned and laser welded in place.
I drilled a hole in the rim for each tension rod and laser welded the 20 gauge wire into place for a crisp, tight appearance.
I just love how it turned out.
Thanks Steve, and keep on drumming.
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. 
I was just going to refinish and rhodium plate the three rings.
I suggested that I solder them all together.
I noticed that the thin band would be perfect to act as spacer/shim to fill the gap created by the base of heads holding the princess cut diamonds.
The marked area was cut out to create a flat surface for the diamond band to fit flush.
Here is the cut band fit into place, soldered and polished.
The beauty of this wedding set is the history of the parts but I didn’t learn of all the history and meaning and story behind these rings until after I completed the work.
I think it is awesome to keep and use sentimental jewelry. This has quite a progression. As she put it:
“…We upgraded to the larger center stone (when we could afford a bigger and nicer set than my original one). I kept the band from that set and I wore it with the the solitare for quite a few years.
When our first son passed away, hubby bought me one of the smaller stones in honor/remebrance of our little one we lost, and to remind me that I was as strong, unbreakable and beautiful as what the diamond represented. Once Peyton was born he bought me another stone in honor of him!
On our 10th anniversary we had the three diamonds all set into one ring. It symbolizes the family bond.
On our 15th anniversary he bought me the diamond band. I could never part with the thin band because that was what he placed on my finger when we said ‘I do ‘.”
Like the age rings of a growing tree, this wedding set shows the triumphs and tribulations of what life brings walking hand in hand with the ones you love.
Here is another cool custom snare drum wedding ring. It all started when I saw his Drum Workshop shirt and asked him if he has one of those awesome drum sets. He does. (I’m so jealous).
I showed him my drum ring and the next thing you know, his wife says that he has to have one. Lucky guy. We got to work on his drum ring.
This 14k yellow and white gold ring is made up of 28 parts. The shell and rims were milled in wax. I did them in different color waxes just to help us in the shop keep straight the color of metal each were to be cast in.
Shown here is the shell, rims and lugs assembled after casting. The lugs were fabricated from a rod of white gold, cut into little slabs. Each was concave to have as much contact with the shell as possible . It took about an hour just to space out the 8 lugs and to laser tacked them in place. Then I soldered them on at the bench with a torch.
The 14k white gold 20 gauge wire used for the tension rods were laser welded in place.
A florentine graver was randomly used to give a wood grain effect.
We refinish rings to like new condition all the time. But I always love refinishing an engagement ring right before the wedding day. It is rewarding to make it look it’s best for that special day.
This classic platinum ring required some prong work and needed to be totally repolished for the big day. Instead of sanding out the light scratches and small dings, I used a tungsten burnisher to move and manipulate the malleable metal back into the dents. Much less material is removed. And the best part, the surface becomes harder when you work the surface with the burnisher, which makes it more scratch resistant.
Refined
We made a rose gold wedding band to match the white gold engagement ring. I had done a post on the band. I did not post pictures of the set together.
I love being asked to find solutions for a wedding set. For hers, she wanted a bypass design. So the design was quite obvious. I matched the heart motif and kept a similar width and profile.
I cast it in two pieces so I could better finish the inside of the bypass.
It is nice to see yellow gold making a come back.
Even with wanting to keep a similar bypass look, his ring had many possible design variations. He chose the center to be a half round band.
I used tungsten burnished to work harden the ring. It hardens the surface and makes to more scratch resistant.
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.
Working.
I am working on the tension rods. Holes are drilled and wire is soldered in place.
The finished ring.
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