Silver Wire Stacking Rings

Stacking rings are a great way to quickly change up the look of your collection of rings when worn.

Beaded wire is available in 1mm, 1.3mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm & 3mm,1.5mm and above are best suited for making rings from.

There are many different ways to form and make a sterling silver ring.

The thicker the piece of silver the harder the metal will be to shape and manipulate.

Step One

Beaded wire is easiest to cut in the space between the 2 beads using wire cutters.

When cut use emery boards or micro mesh to gently smooth the ends of the beaded wire and make the last beads looks like spheres.

Step Two

Use half round pliers to bend the wire into a round shape.

The flat edge of the pliers should be on the outside of the ring.

Use your hand to hold the metal and the hand with the pliers to grip the metal and turn it in on itself with your wrist.

Find out your finger size by using:

• Finger measuring
• You can work out the amount of wire you need by using the formula: Pi x (diameter + thickness) where pi = 3.14
• Or Using an online calculator.

Step Three

Keep manipulating the wire until the 2 ends meet each other and the beads align.

The ring does not have to be a round shape at this stage.

Step Four

Place the rings on a soldering block and add a small amount of hard solder paste to the join.

There is no need to use flux with solder paste as it is already missed in the solder paste.

If you do not have hard solder paste you can use easy or medium as the ring only requires to be heated and soldered once.

Top tips on soldering a ring:

Ensure all your joins are clean, perfectly aligned and touching.

Heat your ring evenly and ensure your solder is touching both joins

Step Five

Heat each ring evenly using a hand blow torch.

When the ring is hot enough the solder will melt and flow and the 2 silver wire end will be joined.

Leave to cool a little.

Step Six

Use tweezers to pick up each ring and quench it in water.

Place the ring in a warm acid pickle.

When clean remove from the pickle using plastic tweezers.

Step Seven

When clean and dry use an emery board to remove any excess solder.

Place the ring on a triblet and use your mallet to tap the ring against the triblet until the ring is round.

Repeat for all the rings.

Final Step

Finish your rings by using a polishing cloth to bring out the shine or a burnished.

You could also use a mop and polishing compound on a pendant motor or a barrel polisher to add shine.

We hope you enjoyed making your Silver Wire Stacking Rings. If you have any questions or want to know more, get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We’d also love to see what you’ve been making so please share pictures of your creations with us too, tagging Cooksongold.

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