Secret Ring

November 2014
Sterling silver, cubic zirconia

Normally when I'm working on a piece—especially when it's a custom piece for a client—I start with a story and and work towards a design that tells it. Sometimes, however, the process creates its own story.

I had just purchased some ball burs, which can be used for creating flush settings even though one might normally use a standard setting bur for that. The challenge with a standard setting bur is that one has to use it to drill out a space at a perfectly perpendicular angle to the surface of the metal in which the stone is being set, which can be difficult without a drill press or other jig. Ball burs, on the other hand, have spherical business ends and can therefore be slightly easier to use because the tool creates the same impression if it's slightly off true as it does at a 90° angle to the surface.

Naturally, I wanted to explore the limits of how far off true the bur could be effective, and immediately set about (no pun intended) setting stones on the inside of a ring. One stone looked great, so I figured four evenly spaced 1.5 millimeter CZs would look even better. The result is what looks like a simple, delicate sterling band on the outside, but has a sparkly secret on the inside.