Hello, I am new to the list and am looking for that is
not readily available. I believe that I have found the right place
and hope I am not wasting your time. I am to be wed this summer and
my fiancee and I had the idea to make our wedding rings. I have seen
this opportunity in London but nowhere else. We are located in
Westchester, New York. How do I go about finding the people and the
place to do such a thing?? Your help and expertise is much
appreciated,
Andrew
@Andrew_Wahlsten
sorry I am not in the new york area but I do that for people
occasionaly, I just finished showing a couple how to make their own
rings it took six months of coming to the shop a few hours every
month to work on them I show them the basics and do all of the real
technical stuff like setting the diamonds and making sure the waxes
are right before they are cast. I really enjoy showing people how to
do it and then the rings mean so much more when you can say that you
made them yourself. I order in all of the materials and help them
design the rings I dont really charge very much for doing it this
way I only charge for the materials and the twenty dollars I usually
charge for casting and sometimes 10 to 20 percent of the material
cost. The first person that I did this for was a sixteen year old
guy who’s girlfriend was pregnant and he couldn’t afford a ring so I
told him If he would come over and make it himself I wouldn’t charge
him anything. Jeremy came over every day after school for three
months and worked on the rings I made him do everything himself, he
was able to scrape together some old rings from friends and
relatives and a half carat diamond from his grandfather and he ended
up with some real nice rings. He even set the diamond himself. He
has since graduated from college and has become a loyal customer and
has refered many other people to me.
sincerely Kevin Potter
Hi Andrew!
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!. We often receive this
request at Metalwerx. It depends on how complex your design is and
how much time you are willing to spend. We have a whole group of
people, in house and outside who could assist you. They can help
you in the design and some of the fabrication. Some parts, like
soldering, we can hand you the torch.
You might contact Joel Schwab who is in Nyack, not far from you who
I bet could help. I’m sure you will get a lot of people from this
list who will want to help you in such an exciting project.
Good luck!
Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
Ph. 781/891-3854 Fax 3857
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio
Andrew, Could this be what you were thinking of?
http://www.weddingringworkshop.com
Debi in San Diego
We have been doing a milder variation of this idea for over ten
years. Most of our work is lost wax, and we go through the ususal
design discussions and wax carving. When both ring waxes are approved
by the couple we set a time and date for them to come in and melt the
gold and cast eachother’s rings. We pay attention to the mold and
melt temperatures and all of the other details necessary to get good
castings but they get to hold the torch and do it. We then let them
cut off the sprue and maybe do a little polishing on the inside of
the rings. That is about as much as most people want to do.
We strongly encourage the couple to invite family and friends to our
casting parties and they often bring new customers. Our store is set
up so everyone can gather around the centrifical casting machine (it
is inclosed for safety) and cheer them on. Our record is 42 people at
one time in the store but typically we get 10 or 12. We generally get
snacks from a nearby deli and the customers will often bring glorious
spreads. A few times they have catered dinners. We have even been the
substitute wedding reception for local friends of a couple getting
married out of the area. This does add to the time it takes to make
the jewelry but it is such a strong marketing idea it is very much
worth it, and it enhances our goal of having the customers feel as
possessive as posible about thier rings. John