The Making of an Asl Ring

١Stage One

Grown in Resin

Every measurement the ring will ever hold is decided here.

The ring begins as light, not metal. An ultraviolet laser draws it one layer at a time into a bath of liquid resin, curing each slice before the plate lifts a fraction of a millimetre and the next is drawn. The piece is built upside down and lifted slowly out of the bath, which is why the model above is still wet.

The fine pillars around it are printed supports, not part of the design. They hold the overhanging curves of the calligraphy steady while the resin sets, and they are trimmed away by hand once the print is done.

This master fixes the width of the band, the thickness of the walls, the height of every raised letter and the size of the opening. The weight the finished ring carries is settled at this moment, and nothing further along can add it back.

In hand

Ultraviolet laser, liquid resin

Decided here

Proportion, letter height, opening size, final weight

NextThe master is copied in wax.

٢Stage Two

Built in Wax

The silver needs a clean path into every letter.

A mould is taken from the master and filled with green casting wax, giving an exact copy of the ring. Each copy is joined by hand to a central wax rod with a heated tool, one after another, until the rod carries a cluster of rings. Jewellers call the finished assembly a tree.

The angle of every branch is set on purpose, so the molten silver will run in smoothly instead of folding over itself. The joint where each ring meets the rod is kept deliberately thick, so it can keep feeding silver into the band as the metal cools and contracts.

Asl bands are heavy and draw a great deal of silver. If a joint is too thin the metal sets before the band is full and leaves a hollow inside it, which no later stage can repair. There is no gauge for this. The tree is built by hand and read by eye.

In hand

Casting wax, heated pen, central rod

Decided here

Whether the silver will fill a heavy band completely

NextThe tree is set in plaster and cast in silver.

٣Stage Three

Cast and Rested in Fire

Sterling silver takes the exact place of the wax, then the metal is calmed.

The tree is packed in plaster and fired in a kiln until the wax burns away, leaving a hollow in the precise shape of the rings. Molten 925 sterling silver is drawn into that hollow, filling the letters, the gaps between them, and the fine bridges that hold one stroke to the next. When it has cooled, the plaster is broken away.

Straight from the mould the silver is tense. The thin, detailed letters and the thick central rod cool at very different speeds, and that uneven cooling leaves the metal hard and brittle, carrying stress locked inside it. Cut or filed in this state, it can crack.

So the rings are held in an open flame and annealed. The heat evens out the grain of the metal and releases the stress from the pour, leaving the silver soft, settled and safe to work. This is why the fire comes before the bench: nothing is cut or shaped until the metal has been rested.

In hand

Kiln, plaster investment, molten 925 sterling silver, torch

Decided here

Whether the metal is calm enough to be cut and shaped without cracking

NextEach ring is cut from the tree and cleaned.

٤Stage Four

Cut and Cleaned

Each ring leaves the tree and is inspected letter by letter.

Now that the metal has been rested, each ring is cut away from the tree. It comes off grey and rough, wearing a skin from the pour, with a small stub where the branch fed it and plaster still caught in the deepest parts of the script.

A rotary tool clears the surface back. The pale cloud lifting off the ring above is plaster and fine silver together. The recesses of the calligraphy are worked out until every letter reads cleanly again.

This is the point of judgement. Each casting is looked over closely, and a collapsed letter, a trapped bubble or a porous patch sends the ring back to the beginning. Nothing is filled and nothing is soldered over. A ring carrying the words of the Qur'an has to be honest all the way through.

In hand

Saw, rotary tool, a close and patient eye

Decided here

Whether this casting goes on, or is remade from the start

NextThe ring is shaped for the hand at the bench.

٥Stage Five

Shaped at the Bench

The inside is shaped for the finger. The outside is left untouched.

The ring is braced against a wooden bench peg and worked with hand files. The stub left by the branch is taken down and the edges are trued.

Most of the work is on the inner band. It is filed and smoothed until a wide, heavy ring will pass over the knuckle and then sit still on the finger. A heavy band grips more than a slim one, so there is very little room for error in the fit.

The outer face is the calligraphy, and the file is never allowed to touch it. Every letter has to keep the exact edge it held when it left the mould. That is why the shaping is done by hand, by someone who can feel where the metal ends and the verse begins.

In hand

Bench peg, hand files, graduated emery

Decided here

The fit, the comfort, and the edge of every letter

NextThe surface is brought to its finish.

٦Stage Six

Brought to Its Finish

Only the raised verse is polished. The ground behind it is left dark.

The surface is now given its character, and this is where a ring becomes Noor or Noir. A soft felt or muslin wheel, loaded with polishing compound, is worked across the raised letters and lifted before it reaches the recesses. The verse comes up bright while the ground behind it stays deep. A machine would flatten the whole surface to one even tone and the script would sink into it, so the polishing is done by hand, letter by letter.

Noor is finished by hand sandblasting the surface to a soft, warm matte, then polishing the raised calligraphy back to a mirror. The verse reads as light held against texture.

Noir is oxidised, a controlled darkening of the silver itself into a deep architectural black, with the raised calligraphy polished forward out of it. The verse is drawn up out of the dark.

The finished ring is checked once more, in full, and only then boxed by hand.

In hand

Felt and muslin wheels, polishing compound, sandblasting for Noor, oxidising for Noir

Decided here

The finish, and the contrast between the verse and its ground