Simple Cabochon Rings
Garnet Rings from the Colmar Treasure
For a more complete description of the Colmar Treasure (a hoard of items belonging to a Jewish family from 1320s France), see Replicating the Colmar Brooch .
Beyond the brooch were 13 rings of various complexity. Four of them are simple garnet cabochons in basic settings, an example of which is shown on the left. Garnets were readily available and popular at the time, mined extensively in Bohemia and used as cheaper substitutes for rubies. Their availability is hinted at in the Colmar Treasure, where garnet is the only stone present in multiple rings.
I love this design for its simplicity. No frills or extraneous decoration, just a beautiful gemstone set with the most minimal bezel required to hold it in place. For an object made more than 700 years ago, it has a timeless and modern beauty.
It was that combination of beauty and simplicity that inspired me to make a pair of these rings as gifts for friends' Academie d'Espee White Scarf prize fights. I enjoy the design so much that I have continued to make it several more times after that.
At this point, I can completely fabricate one of these rings in under 3 hours, and under 2 if I don't make any mistakes. It's been a fun skill-check to have seen that time decrease as my familiarity with the process improves.
The original was gilded silver (though most of the gilding has been worn away), but I chose to replicate these rings in sterling. The cabs I had left over from making extras for the Colmar Brooch, so fabricating these was fairly straightforward:
Form a strip of fine silver to the perimeter of the stone, and solder it closed
Solder the loop to a sterling backing plate, cut it out, and file the edges smooth
Form a loop of beveled sterling silver strip to the correct size and solder it shut to create the ring shank
File a flat on the outside of the ring shank to act as a base for the bezel setting
Solder the bezel to the ring shank and polish the entire assembly
Set the cabochon in the bezel and burnish the bezel closed
Sterling ring with Garnet cabochon
Made for Magister Ishmael Steadfast Reed as a White Scarf Prize
Sterling ring with Tanzanite cabochon
Made for Master Ffernfael of Carleon as a White Scarf Prize
Sterling ring with synthetic Tsavorite cabochon
Made for myself as an engagement ring
Sterling ring with synthetic Garnet cabochon
Made for my mother as a Christmas present
A slightly more decorated emerald ring [Extant]
This ring's bezel is deceptive from this image. It is the same sort of capped-cone bezel that I discovered too late in the Colmar Brooch replication project to include there.
Sterling ring with Garnet cabochon [My work]
However, I am still researching how to best fabricate that particular shape, so this ring simply imitates the top-down appearance with a notched and crimped outer bezel rim.
Made for THL Nicolo Santorio as a White Scarf prize