I made a ring this afternoon. Pictures

[puerco-bellies]

This is a Kingman Turquoise, with tiny coral cabs, and home made silver beads around the outside edge.



The tail of two torches.



The larger one is my trusty Presto-lite Air Acetylene, a work horse all purpose jeweler's torch.

The tiny torch with the black handle is a Acetylene and Oxygen Smith Little Torch. This is the torch of choice for many professional jewelers. I just got this baby, and an oxygen tank yesterday, but the tank regulators don't arrive till Monday and it's killing me. I have wanted one of these for a year now and finally I am producing enough to justify the cost. These torches produce an extremely fine flame for precision work. Even though it is one tenth the size of my current torch it can do the same job on bigger pieces because of the addition of oxygen in to the fuel mixture.

I've got a "Y" drop necklace laid out and waiting for my little torch. With the larger one your chances of melting all or part of a small piece is greater because the flame is so large, there for harder to control.

Come on MONDAY!!!

[Dystopian]

1. Beautiful!

My favorites....I love turquoise and silver...
You're very talented.....thanks for sharing your creativity!

peace~

[puerco-bellies]

2. That was very kind of you.

DU is the equivalent of my mom's old refrigerator. Any thing I make gets posted there.

[Dystopian]

6. : )

Not being kind....it's really beautiful! And I loved your DU refrigerator analogy...


peace~

[zabet]

3. Beautiful work!!

Both of your torches look tiny compared to
the acetylene rig we use in the farm shop.

[puerco-bellies]

4. I'll bet.

The Presto-lite is less then 1 foot from vale to tip, the Smith isn't even half of that.

[Maestro]

5. My wife loves to make bead jewelry.

She's also handy with tools! I hope she doesn't see these pics. Nice work.

[puerco-bellies]

9. If she likes making jewelry..

I would recommend a torch, jeweler's files, and a jeweler's saw with blades. Toss in a copy of Indian Jewelry Making by Oscar T. Branson and you have got a X-mass gift that will be enjoyed for years. It is a great hobby, and can provide a little egg money on occasion. It will run you a couple of hundred bucks though. If you would consider it PM me and I will give you a URL where to get fairly inexpensive tools-n-stuff.
P-b

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Wow!

[SallyMander]

8. Soooo pretty!

Do you make pendants? And sell them?

[puerco-bellies]

10. Silly rabbie

Of course I do. I'm working on a huge tuffa cast snake with turquoise and little coral eyes.. I need to cut more stone for it but will post a pic as soon as I'm done.

[SeattleGirl]

11. Gorgeous!

You do such fine work!

[puerco-bellies]

13. Thank you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. My dear puerco-bellies!

Your ability to make beautiful things just amazes me!

The ring is gorgeous...

Good luck getting your tank regulators Monday!

I was just thinking today that I always enjoy your threads...

And how there just aren't enough of them, either!

[puerco-bellies]

15. Thanks C-P

I am kind of a lurker.. Got to blast out of here to pick up Alison, her Daughter Blaise, and a couple of her very talkative
GF's. It is Blaise's 11th birthday celebration. Good god are girls chatty.

[Capn Sunshine]

14. awesome, dude

how big is that tourquoise cap? I'm trying to get a sense of scale.

[puerco-bellies]

16. It's only about 3/4 of an inch

Thanks

[liberaltrucker]

17. Damn, so creative!

And beautiful! I'd ask how much, but I prolly can't afford.

[puerco-bellies]

18. The ring will list out at $125

I'll take no less then $90. I'm pretty sure I can get "list".