Wedding Ring Workshop experience

About

The Bush Jewellery Wedding Ring workshop experience gives you the opportunity to make your own wedding bands by hand and to make them together.

Story

This is unique as a wedding ring experience because rather than playing a passive role as trained jewellers make your rings, here at Bush Jewellery Studio you will take the tools and with 'hand technology' you will make your own rings from scratch. There will be plenty of scope for you to apply your own touch and for each of you to make a truly unique ring. In this workshop your rings will be cut, shaped and finished by you.

The gold.

You'll start with NZ-sourced gold in the form of pure 24 karat granules or 22k, 18k, 14k, 10k, or 9k gold strip.
If you want to recycle any suitable gold jewellery we can mix the gold alloys here to boost the gold we buy in.

The time required.

I estimate you'll need at least 4 hours to complete the Wedding Ring experience. How long you will actually need to make your rings depends of many things, and each couple can be different. I've had couples do their rings in 4 hours, but if you do run over time I'll ask you to buy extra hour or two.

The ring-making methods

The hand-technology you will use are considered to be simple and most effective: hammering textures and symbols, bending and melting, sand casting, forging. I will facilitate and be there to assist the whole time and will check things are going your way. You may even request that I do some things if they're too tricky for you.

Two types of ring-making methods are offered, and depending on your ring design ideas I'll suggest you use one or the other. Each offers different possibilities. They are:

Method 1. Fabrication. You start making the rings from a flat bar which you forge and hammer into shape while flat (which offers more texturing possibilities), and then you round the flat bar up into a ring and braze the join. Further finishing will be required to clean up the join, and give the gold the surface finish you want.

Method 2. Forging. With this method you make a ring shape with jewellers wax and we make it into a ring-shaped ingot using sand-casting. Then you forge this one-piece ingot/ring to shape and to your size. Often people like to leave the hammer marks visible, so your shiny hammer marks become the surface finish.

Photos

I'll record your journey as you make the rings, and present you with the images on a CD or through a file-sharing place like DropBox.
It's a nice reminder for you, and also a way to prove to any incredulous friends that yes you really did take a hammer to the gold!

The cost.

The Wedding Ring Experience with Brian Adam at Bush Jewellery Studio will cost a set fee (see: http://www.adam.co.nz/workshops/subjects.htm#fees ) plus the wholesale cost of the gold.

What will the gold cost? I supply gold to you at wholesale cost so that it will be an less expensive cost to you.
As a rough guide allow $900 to $2,000. It depends firstly on the dimensions (solid and wide, or narrow and thin) and the finger size, then comes the overall weight and the current gold price. We'll know more when we meet to discuss your rings but you can send me your ideas and describe what you want and finger sizes and I will estimate the cost. This will help me estimate and organise to buy in the gold. I ask a deposit to secure the booking. The balance will be required two days prior to the day.

What happens next?

Many people simply turn up on the day and get right into it.

"Established in 1988, The Wedding Ring Workshop offers couples the unique experience to handcraft their own wedding rings of heirloom quality, that can be worn for a lifetime and passed on to future generations. In this hands-on experience, each couple will get their own highly skilled jeweller to guide them in making their rings in the traditional way, from raw materials to exquisitely, constructed, solid rings.We also have a bespoke service when our clients can commission work, whether it is a set of wedding rings, bespoke engagement ring, or a lovely wedding gift, options are endless here at the workshop."