I have a request to make a spinner style ring with 3 or 4 "plates"
that spin in either direction on top of the finger. i have heard
that ball bearings are used sometimes to acheive this affect. Can
anyone offer any insight?
Can anyone offer any insight?
I bet Friedrich Becker, the father of kinetic jewellery, and Michael
Berger can. You have checked Michaels website?
I have a request to make a spinner style ring with 3 or 4 "plates" that spin in either direction on top of the finger. i have heard that ball bearings are used sometimes to acheive this affect. Can anyone offer any insight?
This should set you in the right direction.
At least in the direction I do it!
Cheers, Hans
Ball bearings it is indeed. At least in the ones I have worked on.
There is, or was, a company that made and sold these out there and it
is their product I worked on and had plenty of fun with.
Whatever they made THEIR “ball” portion of the bearings out of did
not withstand pickling at all. Thus I gained experience in rebuilding
them! How fun!
The bearing is almost exactly like a roller bearing or bicycle wheel
bearing and worked wonderfully. I would suggest using one as an
example. The ball bearings are what I had to replicate. The ball
bearing housing was fortunately made of gold and did not disappear in
the repair process.
I used the same process one would use for granulation to make new
ball bearings. Nip some pieces of gold wire all a similar length,
scrape your charcoal block to make powdered charcoal, place the
powder on your block, embed the pieces of wire in the powder and then
use a soft flame, heat the powder until the pieces of wire melt into
little rounds.
Use a sieve to sort them into a supply all the same size.
The bearing housing is two tubes of different diameters with the
ball bearings between. As I suggested above, I would suggest getting
a bearing from a bike shop and use it for a model.
Hans, Hi, i had made a ring of almost same type, a few yrs back. i
had bought small bearings from watch maker which had a hole in the
centre. which can be fit in the wire and outside of that bearing a
cicle of gold can be (was) rivetted. i think you will do it in a very
good manner.
Whatever they made THEIR "ball" portion of the bearings out of did not withstand pickling at all. Thus I gained experience in rebuilding them! How fun!
How interesting. I just talked about constrains that goldsmith must
abide by. What a great example.
Leonid Surpin
Ball bearings it is indeed. At least in the ones I have worked on. There is, or was, a company that made and sold these out there and it is their product I worked on and had plenty of fun with.
I don’t know if they still do, but 15 years ago, or thereabouts, the
C.R.Hill company in the Detroit Area (Ferndale? I forget. Just north
of Detroit proper) carried bearings that worked for repearing
spinner rings. I don’t know if they were the “authentic” ones, if
there is such a thing, but they were the right size.
Peter Rowe
Another option (not nearly as complex) is Sarah Doremus’ workshop at
Metalwerx in Waltham, MA on February 4, 2011.
Join us for this workshop where we will make a ring that spins! It
is constructed from two bands, inner and outer. The outer band
rotates around the inner band so that you will no longer sit in board
meetings…bored!
If you’d like to see more of Sarah’s work, please visit her
website sarahdoremus.com
I sent this to Mr. Hans Meevis:
my name is Sabra and usually i find your articles nice and amusing
sometimes informative. As i find your articles are mostly for really
well established or well self taught artists. I being a novice
always looked at you from afar and admired your ease at which you
write about making your art.
well when i saw your spinning ring tutorial i lost my mind - i
started foaming at the mouth and squeeling!!! you never see these
rings like this is even harder to buy them in nyc and you sure as
hell can’t find someone that teaches it. usually when you hear the
word “spinning ring” people- send you to a ring that spins around
another as it is on a solid ring that has a lose addition around the
entire shank. or you hear about a “spinner” people think you are
referring to a ring that is mounted on a shank which has a movement
hinge to either side of the shank it. mr. meevis you have a real
spinner but i’d like to send you some pictures of other spinner
rings can you elaborate on how they are made??? i particularly
love the square as it has many many spinning pieces but does not
appear to have any ball bearings in it. can you tell how it is made?
very very rare & difficult to make also they are impossible to fix if
they are broken. go on ebay and check out these item [Link removed :
Sorry no Ebay links on Orchid]
Hi All;
I remember those. They were popular in the 80’s during the “Disco”
rage. They would load up with crud and stop working. I suppose you
could make one up, but it would require a little engineering,
something a lot of jewelers are fond of anyway. Try and find
stainless steel bearings. Look at this site:
Cool site anyway.
David L. Huffman
Check out Teufel Motion Rings. We sold them up here in Alaska. Very
fun rings and pendants, too. Five year warranty. As long as the
bearings are kept clean and dry, they keep spinning…
BK in AK