By Annette Cinelli

Your wedding ring will be the most significant piece of jewelry you own. It will be on your finger for the rest of your life, ‘til death do you part. So as the two of you search for wedding bands, are you wishing that you could have more say in what it looks like? Well, good news, you can!

Local artisan metalsmith Amanda Fisher can help you create your perfect wedding rings. Customers come in with a basic concept and Amanda works with them to refine it; oftentimes the original idea has to be altered because, “Some things you can do in metal, some things you can’t. Basically it’s a collaboration.” Although she works closely with her customers to make sure their concept works, Amanda assures that “…with something as important as a wedding ring, I never try to impose my aesthetic thinking on them. It’s my job to make their rings as well as possible.”

Exclusive design, copyright 2002 Amanda Fisher

Amanda believes you can tell something about a couples’ marriage by the rings they design. A lot of couples incorporate important symbols into their rings. One in particular that stands out has two bands ~ one gold, one platinum ~ encircling the ring. The strands represent the couple, and the hammered texture ring represents the marriage. The couple winds through their lives wrapped around the stable center of their marriage.

Amanda works with customers online and in person; either way the basic process of creating the wedding ring is the same. First the couple discusses with Amanda what they would like, she then gives them a price estimate. The price can vary depending on what metals they want to use, the price of the metals at the time, and the intricacy of the design. If the estimate is too high, there are changes that can be made that won’t impact the look, but will lower the price. As Amanda makes the rings, she emails photographs of the process so if at any point she starts heading off in a wrong direction, her clients can tell her to stop, although “That has never happened!”

The process of creating the ring itself depends a lot on what the final product needs to look like. In general, the process Amanda prefers is a technique called fabrication. This method calls for working with wire and sheet metal and soldering them together to make a form. Amands enjoys working with the actual pieces that fabrication allows, as opposed to using casting, where the jewelry is carved in wax and then cast in the metal.

Photo by Justin Fisher

Amanda also teaches metalsmithing and even works with people so that they can create their own wedding bands, offering her clients a chance to work on their rings hands-on and put their own energies into this tangible sign of commitment and love.

One of the best things about having Amanda work with you to design your wedding ring is that it will be completely unique. Amanda promises, “I don’t repeat designs, if someone sees a ring and wants one just like that, I tell them no, but that I can certainly work with them to do something that is similar.”

If you are looking to discuss creating a special wedding ring, or even just some unique jewelry, check out Amanda’s work at www.afmetalsmith.com/.