This week I’m finishing an order for a set of silver napkin rings. The napkin ring are a simple set of six rings, the only decoration being the hallmark. In my rush to get the order filled I forgot to take photos of the first few stage of the making. I’ll go quickly through what I’ve done already but if you want to see my post on making a silver ring click here. The process is pretty much the same but on a larger scale!
There was a delay in receiving the silver I ordered so I lost a few days of making but thankfully I’m back on schedule. I started by cutting six lengths of silver. I ordered a strip of silver 25mm wide and 1mm thick so all I had to do was cut this strip into six lengths. From napkin rings I’ve made in the past I know that I want the diameter to be between 40-45mm. So I need to work out how long each strip of silver needs to be. Thankfully I remember enough of school maths to know that the circumference of a circle is calculated by multiplying the diameter by Pi (3.14)
So circumference = 3.14 (Pi) x 43mm. So each strip is 135mm in length. These strips are then rounded up on a stake into a rough circle. It doesn’t have to be perfect as the hammering done after they are soldered will give them the perfect round shape. The most important thing at this stage is to get the two ends of the silver sitting perfectly together. The better they meet the tidier your soldering joint will be. Once they are soldered I begin hammering them into their finished shape. Once I’m happy I give them a quick polish and send them off for hallmarking. As there is only one assay office in Ireland they get sent to the Irish assay office in Dublin Castle.
And here they are, back from hallmarking and ready to be finished.
