Ivory and Carnelian Ring

Ivory and Garnet Ring.  The Ivory is walrus tusk.  I got a whole bunch of ivory pieces from a knife maker here in Ellensburg.  This one is big, it was for my father-in-law and he's got big hands.  So it is a size 13.5.

Here are some pictures of the construction:

Basic silver construction, bunch on little pieces ready to become one solid mass

I originally thought I would make a ring of colour across the top.  This didn't work out as it prevented closing the bezel.

The piece on the right is the 'bearer', it will go inside so that the piece of ivory I cut will stand tall enough.

position the carnelian and make a bezel for that.

pause to goof off a little bit.......  The section of tusk on the right is where I cut the ivory from, more on that later.

 

bearer inside

check to see if the height is right and the stone sits level.

While I was making that ring I was also constructing a ring for a friend, square guy on the right.

I used my regular jeweler's saw to cut the ivory.   It smelled awful.  Worse that you would guess.  Maybe like I figure a mummy smells.  Wait, a mummy can't smell, it can only stink.  

I used superglue to stabilize the ivory.  It gets absorbed into the porous material and eventually hardens.