Sterling Story Ring of Mother Bear and her 3 Cubs
Walker Goldsmiths received a referral from our friends, Rhonda and Rod at Alaska Rod’s in Haines, AK this past summer about a friend of theirs who wanted a Custom Story Ring. Rhonda gave Marcel our email address and we proceeded to email back and forth figuring out this adventure of a Custom Story Ring. Marcel said, “The ring I was looking for would be a bear at the bottom of a tree protecting three cubs. The bear would be my wife and the cubs our children. If you could send me a couple of sketches we could go from there.” So I did. This sounded like fun. At first Marcel wanted to surprise his wife, Barb, but as we progressed it needed permissions and “druthers” from his wife so she was brought into the process.
“Mother Bear” would be carved on the inside of the band, I liked this! The 3 rings I drew up had squared off bottoms like I usually do to keep the balance better, but they didn’t want the ring to be squared off on the bottom because The Circle has significance for them. They chose one design and we tweaked it here and there. And as an added bit of significance there should be two gold bands; one rose gold and one yellow gold added into the design. They said “yes, the round ring has significance for us. “ Mother Bear” would also like a little bit of silver showing above the gold band on top and a little bit of silver showing on the bottom of the gold band. The top gold band should be rose gold and the bottom yellow representing them as mother and father.”
Sterling Three Bears Story Ring with inlaid Red and Yellow Gold bands
This was getting more interesting and challenging as we went along. I was challenged by this because it changed a bit now and then as we went along, and I loved it, especially being partial to Bears. They wanted the bears to be as life-like as I could make them in different poses and actions. This was a trick in an 8mm space; 3 bears and a tree trunk. Sterling Silver was the perfect medium because after I carved it in wax and Owen lost wax cast the ring we could polish the casting and texture the bears. At this point Owen inlaid the bands of gold. Then we oxidized the recessed places which helps to create depth and action. Then we mailed it off to Marcel to present it to “Mother Bear”, his wife and mother of their children. Marcel worked hard to get this ring just right and we were very impressed with his determination! Thank you, Barb and Marcel. Owen and I at Walker Goldsmiths really enjoyed this project. This Custom Story Ring turned out beautiful and we especially enjoyed participating in celebrating this wonderful story of the Family Circle of love and protection.
Story Ring of Mother Bear and her 3 Cubs
