This article has been written by team of content creators at Easy Weddings.
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Updated on: November 11, 2021
A Canadian couple has taken the concept of a DIY wedding further than most by making their wedding bands.
Yes, Reddit user Neksys and his fiancee attended a weekend workshop with a master jeweller and crafted their own wedding rings from white gold despite no prior jewellery making experience – and the result is wedding rings like no other.
Below is the process they followed in their own words and pictures.
The finished product… Image: @Imgur/neksysWe are getting married this summer. We opted to make our own rings and decided on fairly simple 18k white gold bands. The raw material is melted and poured into a cast. Image: @Imgur/neksysThis is what the cast looks like. There is something really cool about the idea that our rings will be made out of the same piece of metal. Image: @Imgur/neksysThe ingot begins the slow process of getting stretched and squished. Essentially it goes through a series of industrial strength pasta presses – one to “square” the ingot (pictured here) and then another to flatten the metal to the approximate width/thickness. Image: @Imgur/neksysAgain, using the magic of levers, the band begins to take shape. Image: @Imgur/neksysThis is actually a pretty slow process, as you want to shape the band without giving it a twist or breaking the metal. Image: @Imgur/neksysOnce the ends come together, the excess is sawed by hand (gold is expensive and even the little shavings are scavenged for processing and recycling). Not pictured, but the ring is then pressed in a series of decreasingly small cone-shaped sizers until the ends meet. Image: @Imgur/neksysOnce the ends come together, the ring is soldered with slightly softer gold. This is very difficult – there isn’t much difference between the melting point of the band and the metal used for the solder. There is actually a lot of heating and quenching – any time you put the metal under stress (rolling, pressing etc.) you heat it up and quench it to release the excess tension in the metal. Image: @Imgur/neksysThere is a missing photo here, but the ring is placed in a circular roller that both shapes the top and increases interior diameter. By this point the rings have a nice domed top but the inside is flat. While the outside is shaped via roller, there is no way to do that on the inside, so the interior must be shaped by hand. THIS PART SUCKS. Image: @Imgur/neksysThe interior, once shaped, is pretty rough. Smoothing is done via rotary tool, sandpaper, polishing cloth, and whatever else you can get your hands on that will remove material smoothly. The ring gets VERY hot from the friction so you end up taking frequent breaks to give your toasty digits a rest. Image: @Imgur/neksysBlurry but you can see the interior is becoming nice and smooth. Image: @Imgur/neksysJust about done – they look pretty good here but they need a good final polish. Image: @Imgur/neksys…. which happens nice and quickly. Image: @Imgur/neksysThe finished product! We are very excited to wear these rings and we love that there is an interesting story behind their creation. Image: @Imgur/neksys
