Finished!

I finished my last project tonight and I have to say, it is my favorite thing from this semester. I absolutely love it. Not that it didn't give me troubles along the way...But the end result was worth it. The only problem is upon polishing it, fires cale which I did not even notice at first became much more prominent. It is driving me nuts just sitting on my desk so I think I might have to go back in and sand it some more. This time I might leave out the polishing because honestly, I liked it more before it was polished. The stone stood out nicer and the color of the amoeba (which happened completely by accident but I absolutely love it) is nicer as well. If something is not polished does that make it bad? Also, I had a lot of troubles with attaching the band onto the hollowform. I am not happy with that but there is nothing I can do to fix that at this point I don't think so I am going to live with it...or try to.
Overall, building the hollowform was incredibly challenging. There were points when I was about ready to scream but I pushed through and it was worth it. I am pretty pleased with my stone setting. I was worried I would melt the bezel wire when I was soldering it to the ring but that actually went smoothly (which was a rare occasion during the process.) Its safe to say that my end product actually looks like the maquette I made which is probably a first for me. I usually tend to just jump into things with no real idea of how its going to all come together. With hollowform (and really everything) that is a really bad idea so it forced me to plan out all my dimensions and such which in the long run was very helpful.
During this project I also discovered my love of silver. I wish it wasn't so expensive!
Here are some pictures. Also, I got a little carries away and made a bird pendent and a little ring tonight as well so I will post them along with my actual project. I am relieved but sad the semester is coming to an end. I feel like I have grown a lot over the last few months and am excited to learn even more in Jewelry III next semester.