Stage 2 Riveting: The Impatient Ring

This week I finished the riveted ring—now named The Impatient Ring—and wrapped up the riveting section of Stage 2. Early on, I decided I did not want to simply copy the JTS design, even though I wanted to preserve the core skill-building elements of the project. In the JTS brief, the ring is made in brass and described as a “radio telescope ring” because of the articulated form on top of the shank, which resembles a radio telescope dish. My version took a different turn. Using sterling silver I settled on a nested pair of domes on top of the ring: a larger dome with a smaller dome nested inside it. Together, they form the articulated top element and independently move side to side. I also added a subtle stippled texture inside the domes to give them more visual interest. My plan was that, as the wearers hand moves, the domes would lightly strike each other and produce a clinking sound. I was not sure that would actually work until the piece was fully assembled. It did, and it works and sounds exactly as I had hoped. In fact, if I tap my finger against a surface the way an impatient person might while waiting, the ring answers back with a soft clink. That little detail is what gave the piece its name.

Clockwise from top left: Studio K9 Chico providing final quality control on The Impatient Ring; the finished piece, with its nested domes poised to move and softly clink; the individual components laid out prior to final assembly; and the pivot arm riveted to the small dome, forming the central mechanism that allows the nested domes to articulate and produce the ring’s clinking sound.

As rings go, both the design and fabrication of this one are unusual. Instead of starting with a strip of sheet, forming it into a circle, and soldering the seam, this shank is built from three layers held together with rivets. The kinetic component sits on top of the shank and is attached by means of a pivot arm fitted between the layers and riveted in place. This project forced me to think about ring construction differently. The goal was to keep the whole thing solder-free, and I did. That alone made the piece especially appealing to me from the outset.

The challenging part was not the riveting itself, at least not by the end. The real challenge was designing and fabricating the mechanism that attaches the domes to the ring shank. Because my kinetic component differs from the one in the instructions, I had to work out my own solution for how the domes would be mounted and how they would move. That took a fair bit of trial and error. I went through several ideas before settling on a pivot arm that gave me the motion I wanted. The first pivot arm broke when I tried to rivet the small dome to the top of it. I made a second one, adjusted the design, and strengthened it. That version worked. The smaller dome has a hole at its base, and the pivot arm carries a riveted post at the top that fastens into it. The larger dome has a rectangular slot that allows it to be threaded onto the pivot arm and move freely. Once that mechanism was sorted out, the rest of the ring started to come together.

One thing that became very clear this week is that last week’s articulated dog project really paid off. Even though I was never especially happy with that piece from a design standpoint, it was a solid skill-building exercise. By the time I got to this ring, I felt that I had developed a much stronger process for making reliable, accurate, and consistent rivets. One thing I found especially helpful was leaving the rivet slightly longer than I thought I needed. That gave me room to alternate between setting the rivet and filing it back, gradually shortening it until it disappeared into the surface and became one with the piece. It is a more forgiving approach and gives me more opportunity to adjust the riveting as I go, which means less chance of ruining the work.

Overall, I really enjoyed making this ring and am very happy with the final result. The domes move. They catch the light. They make the small clinking sound I was after. It is one of the first apprenticeship pieces that feels as though it could lead somewhere beyond the exercise itself. I can see this becoming a line of design I may want to pursue further in my own work.

Next up: the gyroscope ring and a second copy of The Impatient Ring as I already have a custom request 😁.

Back to the bench. For the next chapter, check in here next week—and follow along on Instagram @pinedaandco.