Making My Largest Ring Yet: The Challenges of a Size 18 Sterling Silver Ring
Every once in a while, a piece comes across my bench that pushes me outside my normal routine.
This one definitely did.
At a size 18, this is officially the largest ring I’ve made to date, beating the size 17 ring I made a few months ago. And while one ring size might not sound like a huge difference, when you’re fabricating everything by hand, those extra millimeters change quite a bit.
From forming the shank to planning the stamp work, a ring this large requires a little more thought, a little more silver, and — apparently — another tool for the bench.
When Your Regular Ring Mandrel Isn’t Big Enough
One of the first things I learned when I started making larger rings is that most standard ring mandrels eventually run out of room.
Mine comfortably handles the sizes I normally make, but once you start working beyond approximately a size 15, you’re entering a different territory.
For rings this large, I purchased a separate oversized ring mandrel specifically so I could accurately form and size larger shanks.
And that’s something I probably never would have thought about when I first started silversmithing.
You buy a ring mandrel and think:
Great. I can make rings now.
Then one day somebody needs a size 17 or 18 and suddenly you realize your equipment has limits.
Having the correct mandrel becomes especially important with a substantial sterling silver shank like this one. I want the ring to be properly rounded and accurately sized rather than trying to estimate the final fit beyond the markings of a standard mandrel.
The Pros of Working With a Size 18 Ring
There are actually some really fun advantages to working on a ring this large.
The biggest one?
Real estate.
A larger circumference gives me significantly more silver to work with, particularly when I'm making a wide-band statement ring.
That means I have room to create a much more involved hand-stamped design.
On a smaller ring, every stamp has to fight for space. You might love a particular design idea, but physically fitting everything onto the band without making it look cluttered can be difficult.
With this ring, I had considerably more surface area to tell the story.
I could incorporate larger stamped elements, geometric patterns, borders and individual details while still allowing the design to breathe.
The larger scale also works beautifully with substantial stones. The turquoise centerpiece on this ring has enough presence to hold its own against the wide sterling silver band, while the handmade silver accents on each side help transition the stone into the rest of the design.
Instead of the stone looking oversized for the band, everything feels proportional.
And as a silversmith, that's incredibly satisfying.
The Challenge: More Space Means More Decisions
Of course, all that additional real estate creates another problem.
You have to figure out what to do with it.
When I'm hand stamping a smaller ring band, the design may only require a few central elements and some supporting details.
A size 18 wide-band ring is different.
If the design is too sparse, the unfinished areas become very noticeable. But adding stamps just to fill empty space can make a piece feel random or overly busy.
So before I start hammering, I have to think much more carefully about the overall layout.
Where will the centerpiece sit?
Where should the strongest stamped elements go?
How will the pattern look from the front?
What happens as the design wraps around the sides?
Where should the pattern stop?
And perhaps most importantly: Will everything still look balanced once the ring is actually being worn?
There is much more circumference to consider, which means the stamp design isn't really one small composition anymore.
It becomes a design that has to flow around the entire finger.
Symmetry Gets Trickier
Another challenge with a large shank is keeping the stamping visually balanced.
Hand stamping already involves countless tiny positioning decisions. Every stamp is placed individually, lined up by eye and struck by hand.
On a larger piece, small alignment differences can become much more obvious simply because there are more repetitions and more opportunities for something to drift.
So I spent extra time thinking through spacing before committing to each section.
Some parts are intentionally symmetrical while others are designed to complement one another without being perfectly mirrored.
That's one of my favorite things about hand-stamped jewelry.
It doesn't look machine manufactured.
There are tiny variations that show the piece was built one strike of the hammer at a time.
More Silver Changes the Fabrication Too
A size 18 ring naturally requires a longer strip of sterling silver than the sizes I normally make.
When you combine that additional circumference with a wide, substantial shank, you're working with quite a bit of metal.
That changes the feel of fabrication.
There's more material to anneal.
More material to form.
More surface area to stamp and finish.
And more resistance when you're trying to bring that shank into a perfect circle.
The larger diameter also makes it especially important to pay attention to your measurements before soldering. A small sizing error across a large ring can create more correction work later.
And once you've spent a significant amount of time hand stamping the shank, the last thing you want to do is discover that your sizing calculation was wrong.
Measure twice suddenly feels more like:
Measure five times. Then check it again.
Working Around a Large Stone
The turquoise on this ring also added another layer to the design.
Instead of placing a stone on top of a simple narrow band, I wanted the stone and band to feel like they belonged together.
I built the setting so the turquoise became the center of the composition, then used handmade sterling silver accents on either side to help visually connect the stone to the wide stamped shank.
That transition is important on a larger ring.
Without it, you can end up with a beautiful stone sitting on a beautiful band — but the two don't necessarily feel like one piece.
The goal was to make the whole ring feel intentional from every angle.
Front.
Sides.
Back.
Even the areas most people won't notice unless they take the ring off and really look at it.
The Cons of Making Extra-Large Rings
As fun as the additional space can be, there are definitely some drawbacks.
The biggest ones are pretty straightforward:
- More sterling silver is required. Large sizes, especially with wide bands, consume considerably more material.
- More specialized equipment may be necessary. Standard ring mandrels often stop before the larger sizes, so an oversized mandrel becomes necessary.
- Sizing requires extra attention. Wide bands already fit differently than narrow bands, and larger sizes add another variable.
- Stamp layouts take longer to plan. More surface area means more decisions about balance, repetition and spacing.
- Fabrication can take longer. More metal means more forming, stamping, filing, sanding and polishing.
- Mistakes become expensive. When you've invested that much silver and time into a heavily stamped shank, starting over hurts a little more.
But at the same time, those challenges are exactly what make pieces like this interesting to build.
Every Unusual Piece Teaches Me Something
One of the things I love about silversmithing is that there is always another problem to solve.
When I made my first rings, I certainly wasn't thinking about what would happen when I eventually needed to fabricate a size 18.
But that's how this craft works.
You make something.
You learn.
Then somebody asks for something slightly outside what you've done before, and suddenly you're buying another mandrel, calculating a much longer ring shank and staring at a huge blank stretch of sterling silver wondering exactly where the first stamp should go.
And then eventually it all comes together.
This size 18 ring is now officially the largest ring I've made.
For now, anyway.
Because I've learned better than to assume I've reached the limit.
Wear your legend.
— Lauren
Golden Rune Jewelry