My Grandfather, James Dean Lowery, passed away in the summer of
2009. His death resulted from complications after a knee surgery
he had and was unexpected. Before he passed away he asked me to
make a ring for my grandmother. A year after his death, not my
usual turn around time, the ring is finished. Here is how it was
made. Sometimes, a drawing is made at the start of a project and
is used as a guide during manufacture. For this project the
stones that will be set, serve as the guide. The first step is
to carve a wax that can be cast into metal. This small miter box
is used to cut off a piece of wax ring tube large enough to
create the ring. The miter box is used to get a straight cut all
the way through the wax. This blue jewelry wax is quite tough
and can be worked with files like this one to smooth out
surface. In many ways the process is quite similar to working in
metal directly. This ring is going to have a center oval ruby
and two side diamonds. Here the ring is being marked with center
lines and ruby