Also Ran: A design that's not quite there yet.

Love rings - actually - I love jewelry I can look at while I'm wearing it - and necklaces and earrings don't fall into that category. Bracelets and rings, however, do!

So I was playing around with the loopy rings the other day - trying to do something other than the obvious.

I found, with a little fiddling - bending the outermost loops outward a little more, that a big, square Swarovski (Crystalized Element) stone fit on top. OK - how to keep it there?

In my former life, adhesive would have been my answer, but I was never totally happy with it, which is why it is part of my former life.


So, I thought of wire. I started with two pieces of wire, and ran through the loop, out and under the stone from the side, and back over the stone to the center, and back through the middle.

Didn't care for that look, so I undid it, and re-did it, crossing the wires this time to form an "x" on top of the stone (at the sides.)

So, now I had a big ugly hole in the middle to fill. Some experimenting later, and the big margarita appeared to fill the space nicely.

So, having not cut the ends of the wires, I took two ends, secured them by looping underneath the band, and came back up, one from each side, and threaded through the hole in the margarita, and over the sides, and went back down.

Meh. Nice and secure. But the wires are distracting. Maybe in a softflex? Maybe black? Finer wire? Wire that isn't kinky from multiple experimentations. Dunno. Anyway, I'll shelve this for a while, maybe I'll think of some way to make it better.

Here's the components I used, maybe you can come up with a better idea. (Click on the image to go to it in the website.)

Swarovski Sew-on Stones (Vintage) - 14 mm Margarita Flowers (3700) - Heliotrope (1)











Crystallized - Swarovski Elements Fancy Stone - 20 mm Square Donut (4439) - Bermuda Blue (1)










Sterling Findings - Size 9 Sterling Ring - Sized - w Inline Loops - Bright Sterling (1)