Adjustable Monogram Ring Tutorial
by Rena Klingenberg. © 2003-Present Rena Klingenberg. All Rights Reserved
This monogram ring tutorial is easy and versatile. I’ve used mixed metals in the examples here, but of course you can use whatever metals you like best!
I know we don’t usually think of a monogram being just one initial, but Roget’s Thesaurus lists “initials” as a synonym for “monogram” – so I’m including a single-initial design here as a monogram ring! 🙂
Supplies
- 9″ of wire (I used 16 gauge round brass wire, but you could also use 18 or 20 gauge in your choice of metal)
- Metal tag for stamping (for the one-initial ring I used a small sterling silver metal jewelry tag; for the two-initial ring I used an antique-silver color “photo turn”, which you can usually find with papercraft / scrapbooking supplies).
- Jump ring for attaching the tag to the ring
- Ruler
- Wire cutter
- Round-nose pliers
- A file, cup burr, or knife sharpening stone for smoothing off the wire ends
- A ring mandrel, dowel or PVC pipe section
- Rubber or nylon jewelry hammer (optional)
- Metal stamps, hammer, and steel block for stamping initials on the tags
- Flat nose / chain nose pliers for opening and closing the jump ring.
Adjustable Monogram Ring Tutorial
Cut a piece of wire about 9″ (229mm) long:
Use your file, cup burr, or knife sharpening stone to round and smooth off both ends of the wire:
Use the fattest part of your round nose pliers to make a loop on one end of your wire:
Your wire should now look like this:
Wrap your wire tightly around and around your ring mandrell / dowel / PVC pipe, until you run out of wire.
Wrap it so that the coils lie as tightly against each other as you can manage:
The wire end that does NOT have the loop should lie nicely alongside the wire coils:
Optional – use your nylon or rubber hammer to harden your wire and pound your ring into shape on your mandrel:
Use your metal-stamping supplies to stamp the initial(s) on your metal tag. (If you’re new to metal stamping, see my Metal Stamping Tutorial.)
You can darken the letters in your tags by oxidizing, or by coloring them in with a fine-tip Sharpie marker and then wiping off the excess Sharpie ink with a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol.
The letters on these two tags are darkened with a black fine-tip Sharpie marker:
Use your flat nose / chain nose pliers to open the jump ring and attach the tag to your ring’s large loop. Close the jump ring.
And you’re done!
Of course, instead of making monogram rings, you could also attach a bead or other trinket to the ring.
This is a nicely customizable item to offer your customers.
And because it’s easy to adjust to fit the wearer (by stretching or compressing the ring’s coils), you can position it as a gift item.
This is also another project that would be fun for teens to create as gifts for their friends and loved ones!
