Blackstone Complete

Tim’s Blackstone is finally finished and safe and sound in San Francisco.

I finished the cast this week and got to work on setting the stone, which took a while because of the rounded corners.  Proud to say I didn’t need any adhesive.  Elbow grease did the trick.

Best news of all was that Tim wanted a custom finish.  These are always a blast.  Anyway, the finished product is below:

Tim was very patient waiting for this bad boy.  He and I designed the entire ring together from scratch, so it took a while, but the results are great.  The ring is finished with a brushed metal look that really accentuates the hand-made qualities of the ring.  Most rings like this would be made by a machine nowadays.  Not this fella.

The side of the ring features a skull similar to that of my Death in the Desert turquoise ring.  The other side features a Buddhist wheel.

And the two sides are joined with a stylized femur bone and an “OM” text.  “Om” is hard to explain.  It’s a holy sound from Buddhism and Hinduism and has no direct translation into the English language.  Essentially it’s the sound of the universe.

Anyway, the result is great.  A full polish finish might have made this look more…well…polished…but that’s not what this ring is about.  It’s organic as hell and still perfectly balanced for comfortable wear.

Best thing is, the f’ker is fully custom.  You know how many of these exist? One.  And it belongs to Tim.  Still technically a skull ring, right?

David’s Snail Meat, a secret, and Elvis.

Sounds like the name of a grunge band.

David’s custom Big Voodoo has finished and shipped out to Singapore.  Bon Voyage.

Good for David.  Put the text right there on the outside of the shank like a champ.  Nothing more chicken-shit then doing your engraving INSIDE the fucking band where nobody can see it.  If it’s important enough to say, say it where people can actually SEE it.

Now that isn’t to say I’m totally against carving inside the shank.  Especially if there’s a little hidden gem reserved just for you, but this works best in addition to something on the outside.  Example of this would be that Ladybug ring I made for that badass Marine and his wife.

David got some of that going on too.  See below.

That’s not Free the Whales.  Love that.   Hope you dig it, David.

I’ve been working on some other projects as well.  I’ve got kind of a super secret thing going on that I’ll likely be able to announce later.  For now, all I can show you is a wax in progress for said mystery project.

Also put a dent in an Elvis tribute ring I’ve been dying to do for a while.  Kind of a take on the great Lowell Hays TCB ring.

That’s obviously not my style, but I love the concept and the overall shaping of this piece.  So I’m taking a different approach to this design.  I wouldn’t want to copy it anyway.  I’m just paying  tribute to the king and his jeweler.

So far this is all I got:

Doesn’t look like much yet, does it?  Screw.  That F’ing thing took me all goddamned morning.  Can’t really tell from the photograph, but I’ve tapered and sized the ring.  The top is still flat and square, but now I have to shape it to match the massive turquoise stone.   Stay tuned for more on this and my mystery project.

New Facebook Page

Hey gang.  Now you can follow current projects from your Facebook account.

I’ve setup a page with a custom gallery and a timeline where I can post special offers and coupons.  We’re about ready to get into the busy season again.   Don’t forget that I need your Christmas orders before November!!!

Click here or checkout http://www.facebook.com/MtMaloneyCustomJewelry

 

Not sure how much of my client base is on facebook.  My traffic here on the blog has been crazy high-volume, but Facebook is a little more private.  We’ll see how it goes.