D2 Gold Layer as Detail
Submitted to the Registry evaluators - February 2009
I really love this ring and it took me back to my school days to make it! I decided to make a pyramid and had a look online for the dimensions of the Great Pyramid in Cairo. I found the height and the base measurements but I had to use Pythagoras’s Theory to find out the height of the sides. It was a brain twister, that’s for sure. And then I had to scale it down for the ring. But I managed it and the ring is an exact scale model of the Great Pyramid. Once I had the measurements of each side, I drew a template using graph paper. This was used to cut the shapes from the textured sheet.
The texture I’ve used here is wallpaper. DIY shops are happy for you to wander round and tear bits off the wallpaper samples and they are a great source of textures. Well worth exploring. Once the sides were dry, I stuck them together by beveling the joints and sticking them together two at a time. Once I had two L shaped pieces dry I connected them to each other to form the pyramid. It’s important that each side is accurate otherwise the pyramid is wonky. Believe me, I know this from experience!
Once the pyramid was dry I made a base for it and stuck the whole thing together.
I decided to make the band a little unusual. As the base of the pyramid is square, the band attaches at opposite corners of the base so the band is not straight round. It has hieroglyphics on the outside of the band which I made using a tear away sheet.
After firing the gold paste was added to the top of the pyramid and fired on. I then added a Liver of Sulfur patina and polished the ring. It scored quite well.
Design – 4 out of 5
Craftmanship – 2 out of 2.5
Application of gold – 1.5 out of 1.5
Integrity – 1 out of 1
Overall 8.5 out of 10. The comments were very positive too. “Your attention to detail here is really terrific. Every aspect of the design is carefully considered.” This is one of the projects that makes me wonder why I didn’t get full marks for design, given that the comments – and this is the only comment on this evaluation sheet – are very complimentary about the design. It’s a mystery!
Here is the project description from the Masters Registry website:-
D2 Gold Layer as Detail
Create a design that exploits the ability of Gold Paste to embellish a piece. This can be a wearable piece (earrings, pin, beads, ring, etc.) or a functional item (box, letter opener, handle, etc.).