Silver Loop Garden Ring Project

When I was in California this last week I wore a favorite ring of mine that pairs one of our ring bases with lots of big dangles. This idea always makes me smile and every time I wear a ring like that I find that my jewelry gets lots of attention. I actually gave my dangly ring away to one new friend and want to make a new one for myself and one to send off as a gift. Since I can rarely make the same thing twice, I started to play with the idea of big, dangly rings. Megan, at Ornamentea, helped me make this very metallic design. The Swarovski crystals are subtle; butterflies and flowers hidden in the silver loops.





To create this ring you'll need:
one sterling plated 14 loop ring base
14 sterling plated hammered hoops, 22 mm
14 sterling plated jump rings, 7 mm
14 sterling plated head pins, 1"
14 sterling plated balls, 2 mm
14 assorted Swarovski butterflies or flowers

Tools:
chain nose pliers
round nose pliers


Thread a head pin with one sterling ball and one crystal bead. Using your round nose pliers create a wrapped loop on the head pin. Repeat with remaining sterling balls, crystals and head pins. (The picture above does have a sterling ball on the end of the head pin but the Swarovski crystal flowers are top drilled so you can't see the sterling ball very well from this angle, sorry!)

With your chain nose pliers gently open a jump ring and thread it through the loop on one of the crystal beads. Add a hammered ring and attach the jump ring to the ring base. Close jump ring securely. Repeat this with remaining looped crystals and hammered rings.

Note that we missed a few of the loops on the ring base in the pictures. I have since gone back and filled in the empty spots and the ring is just that much more jangly.







I also want to try this with some of the wavy brass rings and maybe some of those sweet, vintagey flower beads we have...I will also have to remake the charmy ring I gave away. It had a completely random, pick-up-things-off-your-studio-table-and-put-them-on-the-ring assortment but I loved it. Maybe because it reminded me of a clean studio table?

Of course, all these items are available at Ornamentea.com and at Panopolie and Ornamentea in Raleigh.