small label ring

Ebony and silver

The ring on the bottom is the final version. Initially, I made this ring as kind of a joke. it was really meant for appreciating rather than wearing. A Friend really liked it so I gave it to her. I figured it was obvious how delicate it was. Well, the next week she came back with 4 pieces of what used to be her ring. evidently you shouldn't pick up large heavy objects with a delicate ring on. Even though I knew that would happen, I still felt terrible that one of my rings broke on someone. So I promised her I'd make her a new one just like the old one but better. The challenge was set. The answer was to place a silver ring inside the wood one. That way I could still keep the delicate shape yet not worry about breakage. As long as she doesn't play football with it on. The first picture is of the new ring and the original one after I glued it back together again. you can notice that there is a clear part to it. that part of the ring was never recovered so I cast the missing part in acrylic. Now it really is just a piece to look at.

Mother and Daughter rings

Bloodwood, Tulipwood, (Black palm - daughters ring only)
These rings are very special to me. I made this set for a woman who's mother was battling Cancer. I tired to use the materials as symbols.
The Bloodwood represents the blood ties between mother and daughter.
The Tulipwood, because of it's unapoligetic beauty, represents the similarity between mother and daughter. It represents all the good characteristics inherited from the mother.
The black palm stripe on the daughters ring represents the teachings of the mother. that though they are similar in charm and beauty, a mothers love will always leave a distinct mark on one's soul.
I made these rings with lots of love.

Plywood ring

Technicaly, this is plywood, but actually, I made it by gluing together several veniers that i had in my scrap bin. So you might say that I made this ring from scratch. "No store-bought plywood for me!", "I'll make my own; thank you very much."

His and Hers Rings

Ebony and silver.

His and hers rings. This is a set I made for a loving couple. The male ring is usualy wider than the female, but this is what the client wanted.

Usually I use the clearest blackest part of the wood, when I work with Ebony. This time the light smoky-like swirls caught my eye and I decided to exploit that. Nature is always the better artist.

Black Palm with Ebony inner ring

Bloodwood and stainless steel

Multiwood Ring

Center: Ebony

Body: Purpleheart, Bloodwood, Maple, Teak, Jacaranda

The Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America. It is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys ranging from southeastern South Dakota to New Orleans and central Texas, and as far east as central Pennsylvania. I get my supply from my father-in-law's land in Northern Kentucky. 

Honey locust produces a high quality, durable wood that polishes well, but the tree does not grow in sufficent numbers to support a bulk industry. Its also used for posts and rails since it works with soil so well and takes a long time to rot. However a niche market exists for honey locust furniture. In the past, the hard thorns of the younger trees have been used as nails.

faith, hope and love

This is a ring Emily and I made for my mother-in-law- "faith, hope & love". I made the ring with teak on the inside and maple on the outside (which makes it strong and unique). Emily custom engraved the ring with "faith", "hope" and "love" with flying birds in between each word. On the bottom we engraved initials of as many family members as we could fit to remind her she's got a lot of people who love her. My mother-in-law just had surgery for breast cancer so we wanted to give her something special that she can wear while she's recovering to encourage her.

new place to buy my stuff

Check out http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17415130

I listed my first item on Etsy.com! I put the Eclipse ring up for sale. very soon I'll have everything up there. 

in other news... I've been working on a new process for making my rings. They will be twice as strong and twice as beautiful. that's all I'm letting out for now. stay tuned for upcoming pics.

pics from the Festival

this is a frame that I made for denise's buckles. it's a solid block of White Oak. It's meant to be hung on the wall. but I guess you can pretty much put it anywhere you like.
a happy customer! Natalie and David.
me working away.

We had 80lbs of skittles on the table! Everyone thought we were selling candy untill they came close.
This is the booth I shared with Denise Saffren (picture here).
This is my wife, the Loveley Emily, inspecting the display.

Thank you

Sorry for the absence. I've been ridiculously busy lately. But I have been making rings! very soon I'll post some pics. So stay posted.
also...

I'd like to thank everyone who came to my booth last Sunday. For those of you who bought rings, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Thank you so much for coming by and saying hi.
Finally,

For those who ordered stuff last Sunday, I'm on the job and you'll get an e-mail soon when your rings are ready.

This was my first "public appearance" with Hopewood, and it was exciting. I can't find enough words to express my gratitude to all the people who made me feel like I was working on something worthwhile. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

...and now, back to work.

lots of new rings being made

I've been working hard in the shop making lots of rings for the upcoming Festival. I'm just making what ever my mind can conjure. If you plan on coming to the festival and buying a ring, you might want to pre-order your ring so you can guarantee that you'll get the one you want. I'm making random sizes and random styles. I'll try to get them all photographed before the festival, but I'll most likely be making rings up to the last minute so there will definitely be rings not posted on this blog.
So, if you wanna buy a ring at the festival, the best thing to do is to email me at: www.hopewood1@gmail.com
Let me know what ring size you want and what style ring you'd like. If you don't know what style ring you want and you just wanna try them on in person, then just send me your ring size so that I'll be sure to make rings in that size. Here's a chart to help you find your ring size.
http://www.jewelrylist.com/sizer.pdf
Generally I'm making rings that are about size 7. some are 5.
remember, you can be creative with your order. Your eclipse ring (for example) doesn't have to be just like the one on my blog. You can have any kind of wood you want in it and in any order too. I say ,any , depending on whether I can acquire the material.
I welcome creativity, so if you have any ideas you'd like me to realize for you, just tell me what you want and I'll make it.
Finally, There's no obligation to buy a ring if you just email me and say you'd like to see a "wow ring" in a size 9for example. It just helps me know to make that ring and have it available in case you do want to buy it. I'd hate for anyone to have to walk away disappointed because there wasn't a ring that fit them or that the style that they liked didn't fit. And if you want me to hold on to it until you check it out...still, no obligation to buy. I'll be happy to do it. Just say so in your email.
Thanks everyone for your interest in hopewood rings.

Olive wood ring

The Olive Tree (Olea europaea). They may live as long as 1500 years. It's native to Northern Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe. Also grown in California, Florida and Arizona. This particular tree, is found near le-Pont-du-Gard west of Avignon, France, it's believed to have started its life ca. AD 709.
I doubt that this ring is made of wood from a 1300 year old tree. but it's olive wood none the less. Olive wood has a faint yet nice smell to it when you cut it. As you can imagine it's kinda olivey. I like the texture of this wood, its very smooth, very fine with closed pores. There is a certain allure to it's simplicity, it's hard for me to describe any more than that.

Brazilian Tulipwood Ring

This is the Brazilian Tulip wood tree. As far as I can make out. There seems to be some confusion as to the real identity of the tree Brazilian Tulipwood comes from. Some sites say it comes from the Dalbergia decipularis, others say Physocalymma scaberrimum . This picture was taken by Chris Diewald who traveled to Brazil and had this to say about it.
"I found a lot of these trees in flower near Pirenopolis, Goiás, Brazil, in August of 2007. This belongs to the central Brazilian savanna biomes (Cerrado). The tree appears not to be well known even in Brazil. I have since found the English name 'Tulipwood" for it and added this to the tags. Unfortunately, I don´t have good close-up images of the flowers.
It is truly a show when in flower! "
Well, I bought this wood from my local Rockler store, and on their web site it identifies the species as Dalbergia variabilis, so I'm going with that.
Here is an example of what Brazilian Tulipwood looks like in a ring. It smells great when you cut it; kinda like perfume or potpourri. It's a hard/dense wood like ebony, it's nice because you can't really notice the end grain with this wood. Not like oak for example where the end grain is very pronounced.
Brazilian Tulipwood is prized for it's color : irregular streaks of yellow, rose, red and violet on a creamy straw colored background.

Liptus trees

I couldn't place this picture in that last post when I talked about Lyptus wood. So here they are, happy Lyptus trees hanging out in brazil.

Rings for sale!

It's come to my attention that I haven't given any hint that these rings are for sale.
I've been concentrating on creating a variety of designs to showcase my ability and creativity. My goal is, naturally, to sell my work. I'm proud of the fact that I don't make "assembly-line" jewelry; each piece is different.

If you want to know the price on any piece you see here OR you want to commission a custom piece, you can e-mail me at:
hopewood1@gmail.com

I will be glad to give you any info you require.

Abbot Kinney Festival

I'll be sharing a booth with Denise Saffren at the 24th annual Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice beach, CA on September 28th. If you can make it down, I'd love to meet you (and if I already know you I'd love to see you too). I'll have lots of items for sale, we'll see how the general population likes the hopewood rings.
http://www.abbotkinney.org/abbotkinneyfestival.html

Check out Denise's work, it's really cool. I have the skull belt buckle.
http://denisesaffren.com

Lyptus Wedge Ring

When I think of a ring, this is the shape that pops into my head. Obviously I try to create every shape possible, but I think the wedge shape is the most comfortable and it's showy without being cumbersome. Lyptus is a wood that comes from a hybrid tree. Eucalyptus grandis and Eucalyptus urophylla. It's grown in Brazil and is considered an environmentally friendly wood. Like most woods, Lyptus will get a bit darker with exposure to UV light. But I think This particular piece shouldn't get any darker. Lyptus starts off kinda salmon-colored and mellows to a nice reddish brown like you see here. Again, most woods have this feature.

by the way, Thank you Heather for your coments.

hu ar iue?

Please, don't forget to sign your comments. I'd love to know your name. please tell me, won't you?

And for those of you who haven't commented yet, please give me some feed back. I'd like to hear what your feelings and impressions are about my work. send me ideas, thoughts, or even criticism. if you like a particular piece, just write that. I'd like to get some gauge of what's popular and what's not.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Stay healthy and happy,
-Carlos Cabal