I had been struggling with soldering silver for some time but last week i succeeded and managed to make myself 2 rings. Even though they are far from perfect i am very happy with them and felt like sharing 'em. The stones are natural, a Bisbee and an unknown (i think Neyshabur).
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Congrats on soldering. They look great from here.
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Great work, @Bluegreen. You clearly hold yourself to very high standards, and it shows. Well done!
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Thank you so much for your kind comments @StevesTrail and @mmrogers I’m very happy to read that you like them!
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Nice work! Those 2 are very pretty 
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They look great! Neat and clean work!
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Thank you @Phoenix7 and @Stracci i truly appreciate your kind comments!
Btw i forgot to mention that i wouldn’t have succeeded without the YouTube tutorials from Greg Greenwood and John Hartman
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Great job! I can’t imagine what a difficult skill (and art) this is.
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Thanks @Ziacat ! It was one of the hardest things i’ve done tbh. At certain times i felt that it was a gamble between either succeeding or melting everything down a blob. Luckily it went well (:
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Oh I’m glad you didn’t have to do that! But I certainly understand getting frustrated - I almost did that to my laptop last night 
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John Hartman, yes! His videos are so good and he explains things so clearly! I have learned from him, too.
I have not seen Greg Greenwood videos, but I will go looking for them soon.
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@Bluegreen Your two new handmade rings are lovely. Wonderful artistry. I especially like that turquoise in the smaller ring.
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I totally agree @Stracci , mr. Hartman explains everything very direct and in a hands on manner. And i love the dry jokes that he occasionally makes.
Mr. Greenwood goes very in depth with his tutorials and i like the pace of his videos.
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Thanks @Patina ! It is one of my favorite cabs as well, also some of my hardest natural turquoise. At first i wanted to save my better cabs for when i would be ‘good’ at silversmithing, but it made me less motivated some how. So now i’m like what the heck and started using my fave stones. I figured that i could always take a stone out of the setting and re-do a piece if i’d screw up the silverwork.
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Yes, I do the same thing. I worry that I’ll waste the silver if a piece with a great stone doesn’t come out so good. But honestly, I’ve been pretty happy with most of my projects.
Even if you think a piece turned out mediocre, something magical happens when you take a piece to the polishing wheel. It just suddenly comes alive and looks great.
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That is nice to hear, and i agree. I was especially happy how polishing managed to make a couple of bad looking solder spots magically disappear.
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WELL DONE! Excellent craftsmanship!
Silver is difficult. To little heat and the solder doesn’t run. To much and you’re making solid silver beads in the blink of an eye!
The other stone, while consistent in look to Egyptian turquoise, could also be Kingman.
At any rate, if I may make a small recommendation. Most turquoise enthusiasts like the tarnish patina on older rings because it makes the silverwork detail and stones POP! You have a lot of lovely detail in your pieces that would really stand out with a little patina.
The easiest way for small pieces like this is to hard boil an egg, smash it up and put it in a ziplock bag while its still warm (the warm egg releases sulfur vapor). Add the silver to the bag without letting it touch the egg (that can cause uneven oxidation) and let it sit until you get the patina you want. Then polish the high spots for a classic ‘old pawn’ look.
Again - Well done!
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Thank you so much for your kind message, i really appreciate it!
I had planned to use silver oxidizer liquid and then polish the rings the way you described, but to be honest once i got the rings soldered together i was so happy and then got afraid that i would somehow mess everything up and avoided extra ‘risk’. Will try it for sure the next time though and i will try out your tip with the boiled egg, somehow it sounds nicer then using the liquid.
The other stone came from this batch:
There weren’t any details about the turquoise at all, except that it probably came from Idar Oberstein in Germany. (On the rare occasion that i am able to find good rough turquoise batches in my country, it almost always came from that place). I’m considering to have some examples tested at some point. Again, thanks for your advice
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Silver oxidizer is great for large projects, because it’s fast, but I sometimes think it’s just too much.
The thing I like about the boiled egg method is that it is very gentle and slow so you can sort of determine just how much patina you want. An hour is usually a good ‘rule of thumb’. It’s not great for batch work or really big pieces, but for this it is perfect!
I hope you try it on the rings because I think they would be amazing with just a little patina to bring out all the exquisite detail you have put into them. If you do, please post photos of how they turned out.
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Thanks again for the tips. Another thing that makes me like the method with the egg over the liquid is that it seems to be a more natural way of doing it. And i would also prefer that one can choose the amount of blackening apparently, as opposed to the liquid, which seems to make the silver pitch black instantly.
I’m considering using it on (one of) the rings, but will want to practice a little on scrap silver first.