Varscite Ring

 I recently joined a group on Flickr called 'Ring a Week' and the challenge is to make 1 ring a week for a year. It is a personal challenge and 'there are no rules'. I thought it would be fun to join, but was worried that a ring a week would be unrealistic for me personally.

So I was happy to read that you can still participate in the group, you just use different tags (RAW2011 instead of RAW52) in your photo. Funny thing is that in January I've already made new 4 rings, and here I am posting about another!

Back in December I made a stop to my local bead shop to see what was new. I found a stone I wasn't too familiar with called Varscite. I was immediately drawn to it's earthiness, pretty blues, greens, and browns. It reminds me of turquoise in that way.

There were three pieces available, and because I'm greedy I bought all three!

I am considering doing some kind of combination of the larger and smaller piece in a necklace, but so far I haven't found a way to make them flow just right in a design. In the mean time, I've made this lovely ring;

It is a statement piece for sure, a nice big 'ol cocktail ring. The back features an open band, I heated each end to form balls, hammered them flat and soldered them to the base. The front pebbles were also hammered flat and patina is used to add a little more character.
I love it, but unfortunately it is a smidge to big for me. So, I'm hoping it will find a happy home else where.