When I decided to make Ysabeau's Scribble Ring, I only meant to make one for me. This was a year ago when the book just came out. Like many of you, I re-read the book, listened to it and thought I should really make these pieces for everyone because I never want the story to end. So, it took a while license the line and I really didn't start physically making the ring until late summer early fall. I had many drawings and designs and made some cardboard cutouts, but I soon found out that the only way to make these rings was to actually make them in silver. This is what the rings were based on. They are a part of the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection. Here it is:

Gimmel Ring

Absolutely stunning one-of-a-kind piece made in Germany circa 1600-50's. How could I make it for everyone? A jewelry designer usually first makes a ring in a neutral size like a 7 which is about in the middle. This way one can size down or up the design - but since these are three with an interlocking bottom and coordinated on top, I found that it would be impossible to do this for all sizes - after 2 attempts. And, for the first design I made the sleeves too long for the smaller sizes. So, the reason that it took me a while was because there are really two prototypes. One for sizes 5 , 6 & 7 and another ring for sizes 8, 9 & 10.  The larger ring is actually almost 10% bigger than the smaller size because it was the only way to keep the integrity of the words as well as the design. To put it into production terms, from the two prototypes I've made rings for each whole size, which makes 15 rings and 15 molds before I could even start production. So, wow, I'm kind of tired.

Now to tell you something that made me cringe last week. First of all, my friends will tell you that I will be the first person who will admit an error. This is probably because I love to learn languages and the only way to speak well is to make mistakes over and over again. I suppose that is the same is for jewelry. So, I concede, I was wrong - well maybe half wrong. I had kind of a Diana/Ysabeau moment. Remember when Ysabeau chided Diana for only knowing modern French. Well, I am guilty as charged. I definitely do not speak 15th century French. So, when I had engraved "A ma vie de couer entier," I didn't see a mistake at all - unlike "du passe" which I really had made a spelling mistake earlier in the process. "A ma vie de coer entier" is the correct 15th century poesy, and it was caught by an astute fan, Celia Chapatot. As you can imagine, I am now changing 5 rings [sigh] and I am sorry to say it will push back the ring production by a few days BUT it will be correct and beautiful. In any case, I am thrilled at all the enthusiasm and hope you will love it. PDF technical notes on the ring.