What do you do with with the many rings you've collected over the years. You don't wear them but they're too sentimental to part with - like my mother's high school ring and her Eastern Star ring, my dad's wedding ring, my high school ring and my first ring - I was 5. There's also a ring in this pile dated 1929, don't know who it belongs to but it was amongst the family treasures.
Years ago, I made a charm necklace of all the charms from bracelets and necklaces I didn't wear. It was great fun, brought back memories and got lots of comments so I thought why not a "ring necklace".
Here's my mom's highschool ring - a bit blurry, but it's such a great ring with lots of sentimental value.
And my first ring - I feel fortunate to have parents who valued these sentimental items and saved them over the years.
I am working with a silver chain and using the larger links for placement of the rings.The design of this chain provides the perfect spacing as the rings don't touch each other. I wouldn't want it to be overpowering or too "clanky".
I laid out the rings trying to mix size and design. I found I liked the lighter ones at the bottom - it seemed to feel better on me. I also found I couldn't use all the rings; it would have been too much.
I used little jump rings to attach the ring to the chain. The triple loop rings which are so secure wouldn't work here as the ring bands were too thick.
I purchased a little soldering iron from a chain craft store. The tip gets very hot (950 degrees) but it has a stand to hold the iron, keeping your hands far enough away while you work. I tried the necklace on to see placement, how the rings laid and felt on me and then I soldered them in place.
What a great variety. The first (far left) is a ring my father had made for me from a stone he found on the beach, next - a pearl ring from younger days, also the mystery ring from 1929...
my dad's wedding band (left) and my mother's Eastern Star ring. My first little ring is at the very bottom along with a garnet ring from my grandmother.
And it's done! This was a fun project along with a trip down memory lane - family treasures are the best!
I came across this very wide piece of lace purchased ages ago at Clothworld - remember that store. They used to have a sale twice a year, lace was a penny a yard and the limit was 600 yards. You had to measure and cut yourself. I always arrived when the doors opened, armed with a yardstick and scissors and always managed to come home with the full 600 yards. I don't know what I was thinking - all that lace but I can't resist a bargain and now 30 years later, I'm still wondering. Well I found a use for 1/2 yard of it - make a silkscreen from the image.
I laid it flat, scanned it and copied it, but thought it was too flat looking, so I rippled it and like it better.
I scanned the image into my computer and manipulated it in Photoshop Elements.
I also found some interesting netting that I rippled and made an image of.
There are steps you can do in Photoshop Elements to make the image clear, dark and with good line definition before bringing it to a lazer copy. Here is the original copy which I put in PE for manipulation.
The first thing I did was to make an "auto color correction" under enhance. There is still not enough strong line definition to make a good screen.
Next I hit enhance, adjust color and then remove color which will make it into a black and white but still not enough definition.
Next I went to filter, sketch and then photocopy which gives an even-ness to the image but still not dark enough.
Then came enhance, contrast, color correction and remove color - I think it looks good now and will make a good screen. In order to use this image on my Thermofax, I had to have a lazer copy of it. The special screening used in a Thermofax will only react with the toner used by lazer copiers. And the screens did turn out nice, will be fun to use them. 
