Donna:
This ring is made of woven wire mesh. Commonly known as Milanese
mesh. It is made from a series of spiral wires. Wire is twisted
into loose three foot spirals similar to a note book wire, but, very
accurately coiled. One spiral wire is then threaded or screwed into
two opposite coils, one on each side of the one being screwed in and
on and on to form a belt of this woven material that can be as much
as three feet wide and as long as one hundred feet. Infinitely
longer lengths can be made, but they would be unwieldy. It is then
slit into narrow widths, (with of ring desired ) this slitting
secures the loose wire ends and then this narrow with is cut into
whatever lengths are needed for different size rings. This short
length is then formed into a round ring and joined at the joint by
screwing in a short length of the same coiled wire used to make the
original belt of mesh. It is then flattened in a rolling operation
secured on the inside using a roller to avoid collapsing the ring and
a flat roller on the outside to lock the coils in place. If you
wanted it domed you would use a pair of matching rollers to form that
shape.
We make silver , gold and brass beads using the same material formed
into tubes with a seam down the length of the tube. Once the bead is
formed the seam is hardly visible. The wire they use for my bead
material is 23 gage, but, I think they use about 20 gage for the ring
material.
This mesh is produced in North Attleboro Massachusetts by a well
managed old line company first class jewelry craftsmen. I don’t know
how old the process is, but it is an old technique and labor
intensive. You can purchase chain machines that make it, but none
compare even remotely to the quality produced by this company.
Ron Pratt