Basically, here are the steps that a ancient roman ring goes through when I prepare it for it's modern home on a purchases hand. I enjoy the bringing back to life of these unique items. Often I discover designs not seen if covered with patina. In some cases, I discover a unique story from it's past owner hidden by time's price.
First, I purchase rings from an antique dealer that deals exclusively in Ancient world antiques. They feature items from Roman Providences in Eastern Europe, Celtic items, Islamic, and some Eygptian items. I purchase a certificate of authenticity from them and a copy of it with is sent out with each ring.
Below are some pictures of rings before they go through the cleaning and polishing process. Often the rings arrive with a dark, green or brown patina with layers of a powdery residue. The pictures were taken after a washing off the intial powdery residue.(I didn't want powder ruining my scanner glass.)
Than, the rings are put through a cleaning solution bath, sometimes several times, over the next several days to sometimes weeks. Rings are cleaned and scrubbed of the patina by hand. This process varies with EVERY ring. Some patina and layers of aging are thicker or harder to remove than others.
They are than scrubbed by metal cleaners until the bronze or metal is revealed. Sometimes there is a rotation between different cleaning agents to remove material and patina from the ring. Like I said, no ring cleans up the exact same way as the others. It is very interesting to watch what materializes from underneath 1700 years of dirt, patina, and aging.
The above pictures are of the rings after their first through cleaning bath and hand cleaning. Next step is the first polish.
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The final step is polishing the ring. This includes a polishing agent and tool which sometimes takes 2-4 polishes to get to its current state for its new owner. Sometimes a ring is recleaned and than polished again. This may take several days, or up to two weeks.
Finally, the ring is ready to be bid on, and is listed through my website.
Link to my Ebay On-Line Store for all of my unique jewelry!
Link to my Ancient Rome Research Info Site!
NOTE on RING SIZING: I use a standard ring sizer for identifying the size of each ring. I use the closest standard size when posting the size of each ring. Women's ring sizes average about size 3-8 depending on your finger sizes. Men's sizes range from 6-12. I'm a women of 5' 4" height, and wear about size 4 on my pinkie, size 5.5-6 on my ring finger, and 7-7.5 on my middle finger. The Romans wore rings on all fingers, including their thumbs. Thus, I tend to get rings in many different sizes from 1.5 all the way up to 11. Any questions on sizing or on my rings, please email me below. ;-)
LONG LIVE ROME!!
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Back to Tiff's Roman Research Page!
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