PB Cohen Creations

I bought this ring a couple of years ago at an outdoor art fair. I'm not showing you the whole thing, because I have a complaint about it, and I don't mean to give the artist a negative review. I love many things about this ring, including an aspect of the very thing — I'm pretty sure — that has me complaining about it. So I won't identify the artist, or even show you the whole thing, so that I don't give you the wrong idea.

As you can see, the ring shank is made out of square wire. (You can click on the photo for a bigger version.) The sides have a nice random line texture, but the inside and the outside were left smooth. The artist had a range of ring sizes available at the show, but if she didn't have one that fit exactly, she'd take a slightly small one, pop it onto a steel ring mandrel, and tap it evenly with a small hammer to stretch it out. What a great way to size a ring on the fly! And this would really only work with square wire, since round or half-round would lose its "round" from the hammering.

The problem I have with the ring is — I'm pretty sure — that the corners of the square wire ended up getting a little sharp from the stretching. As I recall, she ended up stretching the ring quite a bit — and apparently enough to leave sharp edges on the square wire. I keep meaning to "fix" is, all it would take is a few minutes of gentle sanding or filing. And then I'll love everything about it.

Probably. Truth is, most of my rings are either wide, or have shanks made out of larger gauge wire. So maybe I'm just used to wearing differently-shaped rings.