Enamelled blue wavey ring

Here is a little ring I made the other day when I was experimenting with doing part-enamel on a ring.

Firstly I had to cut out a length of silver from a flat sheet. I am using 1mm thick sterling silver here.

Then using silver wire, I soldered random shapes onto the flat sheet at various intervals. After doing this I shaped the flat shape around my ring mandrel so that it became a ring shape. I tested it for size on my own finger as I was making it for myself. Once I had the size correct I soldered it and then cleaned up the edges on wet and dry paper so that they were even and smooth.

Next it was time to pickle the ring in my jar of safety pickle.

Time to prepare the enamel!

I used a couple of enamel colours on this ring. The darkest blue is LJE T330, then the mid blue is LJE T220 and the light blue is LJE T217. I didn't use any flux as I find with the blues it makes them go all grainy. Perhaps someone could tell me why this is?

My kiln is set at 820 degrees Celsius and I usually fire for around 2 mins per firing.

The ring with the wet enamel, sitting on top of my kiln to dry out before firing.

Various stages of cooling down when the ring came out of the kiln. I fired this ring twice, applying more enamel after the first firing.

Next came the cleaning up, so back in the pickle. (the enamel I use is fine to go in the pickle and not be affected) Then I polished it up, not forgetting to wear my trendy safety goggles!

And here is my finished silver ring with blended blue enamel.

And here I am modelling it whilst playing my oboe.