Pierced Ring

I usually try to follow the "No Lucky Charms" rule in my work, but I decided to break it and pierce a heart in this simple band.

I started out by cutting a strip of copper about 2 1/4" by 3/4".  I used a sharpie to draw where I wanted the heart, then punched and drilled the rounded tops of the heart.  I used a jeweler's saw to roughly pierce out the rest of the heart shape.

I didn't worry too much about getting it perfect since it was likely to distort when I formed and hammered the band.  I could (and probably should) have waited and pierced it after I had finished forming and hammering.
I used a ring mandrel to form the strip into a band and soldered the ends.

I hammered the band on a mandrel, then used needle files and polishing paper to clean up the heart.
The top and bottom of the band were sanded and burnished to make it comfortable to wear.
I dipped the ring into liver of sulphur to oxidize the copper to a warm brown, then lightly buffed the surface with high grit polishing paper to create a little contrast.

If you like this ring, you can check out its listing in my etsy shop, Copper Mare.