Last Saturday my future husband and I did the most extraordinary thing and made our own wedding rings. Not designed, but actually took metal and, after eight hours, ended up with wedding rings.
My husband found a ring making studio in New York while surfing the Web. It was all his idea, and I went along with it. This was the one thing that he wanted to spend money on for the wedding. How could I say no?
New York Wedding Ring is right in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC subway. The goldsmith, Sam, was so nice, and so helpful. He takes just one couple at a time, so all his attention was on us. The nicest thing was that he didn't touch our rings at all — they were ours to make, and he demonstrated what he wanted us to do on a ring that he made at the same time. (Well, at one point he did help me when I got frustrated and threw it down on the table.) At one point I helped my FH and then he helped me, and that's nice to know that my ring has a bit of him in it, and his has a bit of me.
The magic that makes handmade wedding rings become heirlooms
Looking at engagement rings and wedding bands can be an exercise in sameness. And if there's anything we know about offbeat couples, it's that they... Read more
It wasn't all fun — the sanding and polishing almost put me to sleep and for the life of me I could not file the edge in a straight line. And my FH got a “corkscrew” instead of a circle when he bent it in a machine. And it was not cheap — it was about $1,400 and the actual cost of the metal was just a fraction of that, (the main cost was the time we spent there) but we had a lot of fun, and I learned that I can use those sort of tools and I'm not afraid. It's the ultimate DIY project.
And here is how we did it…
Step 1:
This is the piece of palladium that became my wedding ring.
Step 2:
FH heats his ring with a blowtorch so it can be bent into a circle.
Step 3:
It's not exactly a circle…
Step 4:
Melting the edge together with chips of palladium.
Step 5:
I'm banging the ring into a circle.
Step 6:
Here we are polishing the finished rings.
And here are the end results in my palm…
Both of our rings are made of palladium. It matches my engagement ring. My FH did some hammering on his, but mine is a plain band, which is required under Jewish religious law.
