Reticulation and the art of Wabi Sabi
Alright y'all, let's get those learning caps on. I've been working with doing reticulation on my rings and I'm sure you wondering what that is. It's an effect when you heat the metal to the point where the outside is hotter than the core of the metal and it begins to distort. As you reach the right point of heating the outer surface begins to ripple then you get a texture that's ridged and ripply.
Wabi Sabi is the Japanese aesthetic that centers on "the acceptance of transience and imperfection." When approaching the application of reticulation, a certain acceptance of imperfection has to be accepted. The rings have a unique texture but the inside of the ring won't have a perfect surface, you'll see spots where the ring was distorted. That said, most of the time you'll the seam where the rings were soldered. This part of the process. If I take off the excess solder, it'll also take down the texture. Also, sometimes the seams will have small areas where the solder doesn't fill and this is caused by the effects of the reticulation.
These are unique rings by their nature and making a duplicate texture is pretty much next to impossible. This means you'll have an individual ring that you won't see anyone else with.
