Weekend Project: How to Make a Ring from a Quarter
The coin ring is an internet DIY classic. I remember seeing an old video (on Makezine, perhaps?) on creating a nickle ring way back in the early days of the DIY and craft blogosphere. Like, 2006.
But, most tutorials simply harvest the coin as raw material, banging it and beating it until it looks like any piece of cool-colored metal. These pieces by Nicholas Heckaman, however, fully embrace the ring's origin, showing off that recognizable texture and type, giving the ring plenty of personality.
My Modern Met has a full feature of Heckaman's process, and he's happy to share his techniques. A hole is drilled in the ring, and then it's heated with a simple blow torch so it's easy to work with.
It's then hammered out on a steel ring mandrel (about $10-15), and heat-hammer-repeat until the ring forms its final shape. After that, the whole thing is polished to reveal the detail from the original quarter.
Cool, right?
Here's a tutorial at Instructables that achieves similar results, so you can check the process: Double Sided Coin Ring
But, really, the technique here is available to all. I'm sure the key to great results is just practice, practice, practice. Very cool work, Nicholas.
Visit The Ring Tree on Etsy to see all of Nicholas' work, and then check out Designer Drills Holes into Quarters, Turns Them into Rings on MyModernMet for more details into the process.
Chris
