Native American Geometric Inlay Ring Repair
I had a Tampa-local client who has been wearing this intricate Native American inlay ring since the 70s and has never taken it off until now.
He wanted to have the broken stones replaced, but was very tentative about giving his ring to just anyone.
At first, we talked on the phone so he could get to know me and how I planned on repairing his ring. Soon after, we met up in-person so he could give me his ring.
For full repairs like this one, the first thing I do is carefully remove all of the stones and the old epoxy (you can see all of the old epoxy and gunk in the ring in the picture here).
I make sure to remove all of this and thoroughly clean out the metal or else the new epoxy won’t have anything solid to really grab on to.
When I removed all of the stones, I noticed how thin many of them were—some as thin as 3-4mm for such a deep ring channel. By the time I put all of the pieces together and cut everything flush, the stones would end up being even thinner. When inlay stones are thin, they are more susceptible to cracking, especially in a ring that is being worn every day, all day long.
I suggested to my client that it would be best to just recut all of the stones in the inlay, since there wouldn’t be many left to salvage anyways.
Once he gave me the go-ahead, I pulled together all new mother-of-pearl, turquoise, black onyx, and red spiny oyster shell to cut for the stone mosaic.
In the picture here, you can see the height difference between the newly cut mother-of-pearl I did on the left versus the original mother-of-pearl on the right. You can see how thin it is on the end where it wouldn’t give me much room to recut for the repair so it was best just to cut an all-new piece.
Starting from the center outward, I started to recut the new pieces and slowly put them together so I knew they would have a nice tight fit.
While I was working on the stone repair, I also cleaned out the inlay channel and polished the 14k gold so it would look nice and new.
When I met up with my client again he kept running his finger over the smooth stones and said, “I’m so glad I took that leap of faith to work with you! My ring looks even better than when I first bought it.” There’s no better feeling than being able to exceed the expectations of my repair clients like that!
Do you have a Native American inlay ring that needs to be repaired?
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