Celtic and Ogham Script Wedders

My wife and I had the pleasure to make a lovely

couples dream rings come to life, in time for their dream wedding!

The couple decided an "OFF THE SHELF" solution was NOT what they wanted so they decided to custom make their own wedders with a design special  and unique to them both, and they managed to come up with something rather special.. A mix of Ogham and Celtic script, describing their love and vows for each other!

Happily we were chosen to bring these rings to life.

The design was somewhat complex and of the clients own making, we were furnished with these images in the brief

The ring layouts, Done by client

The profile and Layout of the Gents Ogham Script band

And rather precise spacing and layout of the script

So the work on it began in earnest.. and I mean in earnest! 

Turnaround time was marginal and required high speed courier services between us in Melbourne and the Clients in Hong Kong!

and of course.. Disaster struck.. MISCAST!

The gents Ogham band was a casting fail and had to be hand made  and hand engraved to make the deadline!

And then we had to remanufacture the ladies band too! No errors or issues, but the clients decided they wanted a thicker band to suite the existing engagement ring.. .. NOTHING like pressure when i job is ALREADY overdue! Soo.... Overnight milling, in the mill room till midnight, next day cast and finish.. JUST IN TIME to ship to client for the wedding!

SO! All is well that ends well!  Ladies skip to bottom for pretty ring and wedding pictures if manufacturing videos bore you ;)

Millicent Running the Celtic Bands Ladies

This was filmed in stop motion and sped up to present to client to show progress :)

(groovy soundtracks :) )

  Millicent Running the Gents Celtic Band Millicent Running the Gents Ogham Script Band

OK ladies, pay attention again! 

The video of the completed bands as presented to the clients before Speed Courier pickup to Hong Kong :)

 

And after a month the clients sent us some images from the event itself!

To the Happy couple, from Caro and Myself..

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

(we quote from the emails from the lovely couple)

Andrew

Hi Caro & Chris,

We are back and had a great wedding and time in Czech Republic...

The 2nd ring Portia absolutely loves - it now fits very nicely / looks great with her engagement ring - thanks again!!!
We are both so very happy with how they turned out :)
Being happy with the rings did make the ceremony more relaxed and much more enjoyable for us both (thanks for your help!)

We hope you enjoy the photos and thanks again so much for the help with the rings.

Cheers and best regards,

Andrew (& Portia)

Portia

Hi Chris & Caro

We cannot thank you enough for the rings. Well, we simply could not
have been able to have a perfect wedding without them. The 2nd one of
mine fits perfectly and I proudly show it to my friends. They are
amazed! We know how much extra efforts we had made for us. Will never
forget.

With warmest regards
Portia

From Chris and Caro... to Andrew And Portia..

YOU ARE WELCOME!

What a wonderful experience helping these lovely folk achieve the dream wedding they always wanted!

Kind regards All, 

Chris and Caro

My Next attempt at Pave

Some dual back to back triangular pave. 

I made an error of judgement in terms of the width of the ring VS the size of the stones.. but managed to wing my way around it ;)

Images follow logically after video :)

And added this segment after :)

and this clip with it :)

Square Setting

Had some fun with this.. set three just for practice.. then.. as usual.. ran with the idea and engraved it as well ;) (see video at end of post), images follow logically.

Tools Used,

Lindsay Airgraver

90 degree, 30 degree, flat and a beading tool,

1.5mm drill, 2.8mm flame burr, 3.0mm setting burr

3 x 3mm CZ, 1x Bunnings brass lug.

Drill the holes (in retrospect i should have measured this, but I didn't plan to engrave it up as a single piece at this point :) )

Open with Flame and setting burr to seat stone, then precut the bead edges. 

Deburr with stone setting burr and place Gem. 

use 30 degree to cut a bead and press over stone 

 Use a beader to round off the beads

use the 90 degree and flat gravers to cleanup and edge the borders 

repeat X 3 

THEN.. decide you kind like it, even if its not even, so carve it up with walking leaf and milligrain ;)

First Attempt at Pave

The ring blanks I am using are from Bunnings Hardware, COPCAL seal rings, 60 cents per six pack, very cheap but not useful with that large angle on them, so some machining with lathe was required first. Images follow logically after video :)

Four Part Practice Plate

This was FUN!

All freehand, no prints or transfers (which dont work for me anyhow), just some scribing..

Very liberating :)

videos follow sequentially, if you are a power reader skip to last one ;)

New Toys! Engraving!

It has been a very long time since I updated the blog, apologies, I have been busy!

My latest adventure has been to learn engraving/setting.. its been a riot really enjoying it!

After recieving the last piece of the puzzle, my Lindsay Airgraver my initial attempts using only hand powered tools started to look far better.

The first time I cut something and went  "Wow.. that looks good!" was only one day after I got the AirGraver,


and then one day after I decided to copy my own tattoo, artwork by Colin  Creed,



and this was the result! Impressed myself!





I will keep this updated as this adventure continues ;)

A new addition to the Family

Millicent.. the new mill!

We sold the original Millicent (Millie-mdx15) some time back, and we have recently purchased a new Minitech MiniMill2 which I named after Millie.

The birthing was pretty uneventful, Jack at Minitech supplied an all new fandangled  controller box and Millicent has come to life!


The arrival and initial wiring..

Stage 2, the wiring more complete!

and dialling her in!

and finally the first paying jobs of my lady!

Biker Guardian Bell.

Hey all, been a long time since I did this, actually forgot about it, was a fun project, I made it for myself but have since sold a few :)

A pictorial :)

The Cad of course

The CAM

Cutting up the huge wax block

Lathing it to size

Transfer from lathe to mill

Start roughing

Start Final outside cutting

Finish outside

Sacrificial wax holder for bell 

Cut to fit bell

Wax welded into place

Interior of bell being cut

by this spiral path

All done, remove bell

And the final piece! ready to hang on ur bike!

Building Earrings.

Once again, video explains it all :)

and the Video :

Complete workflow layout, crossover sweep.

wont say much, videos speak for themselves.

CAD:
CAM:
Finishing and Setting.

Testing my LiveScribe

Frequently my biggest problem is forgetting what happens in a consultation, the sketches remain, but the context is missing.. this should not be a big issue really, unless you have high volume and 5 clients all want similar things... so I'm turning to a slightly higher tech pen.. the LiveScribe,  it allows me to use a regular pen on paper, and create  a digital drawing (saving extra step of scanning/photographing sketches)  as well as recording the audio which is then tied to the drawing, i tested this at home with my 4 year old as a prospective client ;)

a nice "halfway" between the digital cad world and the analogue pencil sketch.. and easier for clients to use than a tablet as well...