The gemstone in this ring is petrified whale bone. I found it on the coast of California. This is a pretty rare type to find, with such definition of the cell structure. 
It's pretty interesting material to work with to say the least. Very odd to cut a gemstone out of a once warm blooded creature, that swam through our oceans millions of years ago. If anybody is a whalebone expert palientologist I would sure love to know what type of whale this was. 
The customer wanted a heart shape cut out of the back. So I traced a heart design and started drilling a small hole at the top of the heart. 
You must feed the blade of a jeweler's sawblade through your whole. Tightening the blade up and sawing in this manner takes some practice. Never take off your safety glasses when working with jewelry tools. The sawblades are especially prone to breaking and caution must be used at all times. 
Once you have all your pieces cut out you can solder it all together. All soldering should be done before you set the stone. Diamonds can be soldered in place but other gems will explode or crack. 
This is the inside of the setting after a bit of clean up. You can still see where most of the solder chips were placed before I heated it with a torch. The solder melts at a slightly lower temperature than the surrounding silver. If done correctly the bond should be as strong as the silver itself. 
Once the soldering is complete you will have to do some filing and sanding. It's a very time consuming process but I like to do most of the work by hand. 
You can actually see where I scratched this with a dremmel tool trying to polish it. Took a little extra time to get a brilliant shine on it, but it was all worth it in the end. 
The customer was so exited to be able to own such an interesting piece of jewelry. Not too many people have a Petrified Whale bone ring. 
Had to get a bunch of pictures before I mailed this beauty out. 
Hope you enjoyed the show! Please #upvote #follow and #resteem Here's a link to my online shop.https://www.mygypsystore.com/store/dirty-hippie-designs/
Very Beautiful Find.
Thanks. It was a fun project...
Great process post. That heart in the ring is such a great touch. The ring is stunning. I'm sure your customer was over the moon.
Thanks. She really was impressed. One of the more interesting things about making was the smell when you are grinding and polishing. Kinda gross lol. Same with dino bone really odd smells...
I bet she was impressed. I always love seeing a little extra put into creations like that.
I can imagine the smell was bleh. Have you ever done anything with bone or antler? Same reality, not a good smell. I imagine you would become immune to it eventually just like anything else.
Smelled like a mortuary in my shop. I've played with some antler a bit. I used to work for this jeweler that wouldn't clean the rings (from customers) that he was doing repair work on. He would look at me and say "smell the d.n.a. " I would sneak anything I could into the cleaner before he got his hands on it. So nasty lol
lol, "smell the DNA", that's awesome. Maybe it helped him connect with his clients....oh mercy.
I love the smell of d.n.a. in the morning lol
I love this, the petrified whale bone is really unique looking! I have never seen something like that before. I just googled and there are some really cool patterns in petrified whale bone. I would be interested to know what the petrified whale bone looks like uncut - good eye to find that.
Cheers - Carl
Pretty interesting stuff for sure. I actually bought a small piece at a gem and mineral show as a child. I knew once I bought it that I'd seen the same stuff at the beach. I only found a couple small pieces growing up. I know where a really good spot is but it's a bit far from where I live now. I'll certainly get some pictures of it raw...
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Awesome find, good on you
Thank you