Turkish Puzzle rings

One day long long ago, a Turkish Nobleman was looking at his beautiful wife... thinking.

In his eyes she was by far the fairest of them all.

His heart skipped a beat with every breath she took.

But a restlessnes was creeping up from the depths of his lovestruck heart.

If he could see her divine beauty, so could the rest of the villages men.

Jealousy was rearing it's ugly head, like it does when beauty is strong.

The way this nobleman saw things was: either he takes out all the men in the village's eyes,

or he could devise a way to ensure she is faithfull.

And so he had the local jeweller make a ring to equal his wife's beauty,

but with a twist, if she took it off it

would fall apart, and if she did not know how to put the puzzle rings back together,

he would know she took it off and was posibly unfaithful.

Sounds like a fairy tale. Whether this is the real origins of the turkish puzzle ring is unclear,

but what is clear is that if someone hasn't shown you how to put the puzzle back together, you will struggle.

And they are beautiful, twisted, and if given to someone you intend to spend the rest of your days with, it certainly does symbolize the beautiful puzzle that life in a relationship is.

A couple of months ago, on a Saturday, I had a couple ask me if I can make puzzle rings. At that point I had never. But I told them to come back on the Monday and I would tell them if I could.

Over that weekend I searched the far reaches of google to see if I can find a tutorial. It seems those who know how to make them keep it a very closely guarded secret. The closest to a tutorial I could find was more for the clients benefit and very roughly outlined.

But a deffinite starting point for me. By ten o'clock Monday I had made a silver puzzle ring that even had a setting on for a garnet. Reverse engeneering Reinette Style.

It is hugely satisfying to look at the photos of the puzzle rings I have made, indeed I solved the puzzle of how to make them.

I have always been very intrigued by Cameos. These delicately carved works of art has been telling stories 300 years before the birth of Christ in Alexandria, Egypt. But was ultimately made popular by Queen Victoria of England.

Did you know that you can tell if a master carved the Cameo by the signature at the back? The apprentices weren't allowed to sign their names.

Even though I do not carve Cameos myself, I do have a nice little collection of these beauties, it was not very hard to design for this shell Cameo. I decided on using Sterling Silver.

The feminine lines of the Cameo lends itself beautifully to my style of designing. Although my style has changed and matured over time, I have always been drawn to vintage jewelry, I believe I put a slight modern twist to it. I had a lot of fun cutting out the pattern, it is a theme that repeats itself on many of my pieces. I drew the design out on the metal, drilled 0.9mm holes and cut out the negative spaces, its almost like drawing with a saw. What a medium! Oh, and everything down to the chain was handmade by me. :)