Ring a Ding Ding

Finished some of those Roman/Riveted rings I started last week. I'm having a lot of fun choosing which stones to use. But drilling out the holes to fit a 16 gauge wire has been... um... challenging shall we say.

I'm using diamond coated twist drills, starting with the one with the smallest diameter on all the stones then changing to the next larger bit and doing them all again until I reach the correct size. I did fracture a couple of tourmalines before I got the hang of it. You have to drill using water as a lubricant and stop after about 20 seconds to take out the bit and clean it off so the flutes don't get clogged.

I'd actually prefer using larger gauge wire, but will have to make my own silver focal beads or look for some gem ones with big holes to start with. Which wouldn't be an easy find. I was able to get 4 ring bands out of a single 16g package of PMC3.

Here's hoping they get some attention this weekend at my show!