Good Gold Again

Folks sometimes ask me to take photos of their jewellery as it is being made. This makes for an interesting keepsake, I'm happy to oblige!

I never get tired of this task; take a spoonful of native gold nuggets, melt into an ingot, forge into wedding ring. Keep it earthy. Its good. Again. 

Iron & Gold Ring- from a scythe.

I cut this ring from the chine of a 19th century scythe blade.
I cold forged this to the desired thickness. This kind of old iron blackens easily- a good contrast to the 18k gold ball.
My method for making the ball (you can just buy them):
-calculate volume of gold req'd
-melt gold into a round cavity in a charcoal block
-attach this resulting crude sphere to a brass rod
-fasten rod in drill (voila: rudimentary lathe)
-turn on drill and file the sphere to perfection as it spins. Then cut off the rod.
-It looks a bit 'hard' and 'perfect' at this stage. To soften the perfection, I then rolled the sphere round and round between two marble slabs imparting a nice stone texture.
A little olde world scythe inspiration: