Hogwarts Houses Rings

For a while now, I've been wanting to make an instructable showing you guys how to design a custom twisted ring. I made a bunch of these with the people following workshops at the Twente maker festival a few weeks ago and realised how many different styles you can actually create on the same basic ring.

When combining this idea with the Hogwarts pendants and bracelets I've made before, it seemed quite clear what to make: Hogwarts houses rings. The beads are the same in all four rings, except for the colours.

This instructable will show you the total process of creating your own ring, from design to execution to end result.

Step 1: Materials

To make one of these rings, you'll need:

- pliers

- wire, gauge 21/0,8 mm and gauge 26/ 0,4 mm

- a mandrel

- 4 mm (glass) beads in the right colour

Step 2: Sketches

For the four different sketches, I tried to take four really different approaches within the same base.

Hufflepuff: patience, kindness, loyalty. For me, that leads to coziness and randomness in the design. No structured or complicated wirework, but something nice.

Slytherin: resourcefulness, ambition, cunning. Flowing, clean, sophisticated. Based around a dark green circle, this was the perfect fit for a Slytherin ring.

Ravenclaw: wisdom, creativity, originality. Most important for this ring was to incorporate wirework in the design. If you ask me, wirework perfectly works with that.

Gryffindor: nerve, chivalry, courage. Something not too complicated, yet supporting that fierceness of the red beads.

Step 3: Hufflepuff - Getting Started

Start by cutting off two pieces of wire with the same length. I don't really measure when cutting, I stick to using 1 - 1,5 rounds of the spools the wire comes on. Align the ends of both wires and look for the middle. Place the mandrel on top and bend both wires around it, creating the situation shown in the first image of this step.

Twist the wires around each other to lock them into place and start making the ring. At this point, you can take the ring off the mandrel for a moment to see if it fits. If it does, put it back on the mandrel. If it doesn't, unlock the wires and relock them at the right size.

Step 4: Adding Beads

Add a yellow bead to one of the inner wires. Keep twisting the wires around each other and add a second bead to the outer wire on the other side of the ring.

Step 5: Twisting and Adding

To be able to achieve the randomised look from the sketch, it's important to continue adding beads and twisting the wires around each other. Important when doing this is trying to balance the beads out a bit. I'd recommend using somewhere around 5 beads.

Step 6: Ending the Wires

Once all the beads have been added and the wires have been twisted to create a look you like, it's time to end the wires. Wrap the end around the base of the ring once, starting with the inner wire, cut it off close to the ring and use a pair of flat nose pliers to clamp the end down. Repeat this for the outer wire and for both wires on the other side.

Step 7: Hufflepuff - the Result

"I feel that if a single pupil wants to come, then the school ought to remain open for that pupil." Pomona Sprout

Step 8: Slytherin - Getting Started

The beginning is the same for as for the Hufflepuff ring. Cut off the wires, lock them in position, check the size. After this, continue twisting the wires for a bit to create a circle, as shown in the last image of this step.

Step 9: A Circle of Beads

Take the ring off the mandrel and start adding beads to one of the outer wires. The number of beads you'll need depends a bit on the size of the circle you wrapped during last step. Slowly bend the beaded wire around the circle. Once you're about halfway through, start bending the inner wire on the other side towards the circle. This will be used to make the inner circle in the next step. Continue bending the beaded wire until you reach the ring base and complete the circle. Wrap the wire around the base, cut off the end and clamp it down.

Step 10: The Inner Circle

Take the wire you already started bending inwards last step and continue bending it against the beads to create a wire circle inside of the beads. When the circle is complete, wrap the wire up and through the ring, at the place where you wrapped the first wire around the ring base.

Step 11: Ending the Wire

Wrap the wire down again in the middle of the two wraps around the base, created by ending the first wire. Make another wrap around the base to be able to end it next to the other wire wrapped bit without having it poke out from the side.

Step 12: Outer Circle I

Take one of the still unused wires and let it go to the side of the ring that has the wire-wrapped part by bending it underneath the ring. Put it through the wires there to let the wire go to the outside of the ring. From this position, start bending the wire around the beads to create the first outer circle. End the wire next to the wire wrapped part, making sure to clamp it down after cutting it off.

Step 13: Outer Circle II

Take the last wire and let it go to the outside of the ring by putting it through the beaded wire and the wire of the outer circle. Wrap this wire around the beads as well and end it off by wrapping it next to the other ends.

Step 14: Slytherin - the End Result

The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible." - Severus Snape

Step 15: Ravenclaw - Getting Started

For this ring, you can follow the same instructions as for the Slytherin ring, but the circle doesn't have to be as big. After making the circle, gently bend the wires apart to create the look shown in the last picture of this step.

Step 16: Adding Beads

Add one bead to one of the inner wires and two beads to the outer wire on the same side. Make sure one of the beads on the outer wire ends up on one side of the single bead and the other bead on the other side. Once all three are in position, wrap the inner and outer wire around the ring base, but don't cut them off yet.

Step 17: Wire Action

Bend the wires on the other side of the ring in a curve to the ring base and wrap them around it. Bend the other two wires in a curve as well, but don't wrap them around the ring base.

Step 18: A Bead and Ending Wires

Put a fourth bead on the inner wire and wrap the wire around the ring base. After this, you can end the wire. Repeat the same thing for the last wire, but without adding a bead.

Step 19: Wire Weaving

Cut off a bit of the gauge 26/ 0,4 mm wire and wrap it around the outer wire of the side with one bead a few times. After that, start creating a woven pattern by alternating sides and wrapping around the wires two times around the inner wire and three times around the outer circle. Once you've reached the bead, end the wire by wrapping it around the outer wire three times.

Step 20: A Bit of Wrapping

On the other side of the ring, wrap the wire around the outer wire until you reach the place where you want the second bead to be. To get past the bead, wrap the wire around it until you are happy with the way it looks. End it by wrapping the wire around the last bit of the outer wire.

Step 21: Ravenclaw - the Result

"Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. " - Luna Lovegood

Step 22: Gryffindor - Getting Started

The base for this ring is the same as for the Ravenclaw ring. Once the base has been made, add a bead to the inner and outer wires on one of the sides. Make a wrap around the ring base with both wires.

Step 23: Wire, Beads and Pliers

Cut off the outer of the two wires you just wrapped around the ring base. Add a bead to the inner wire on the other side and bend it around the ring, letting it end on the same side as the first wires. Take the remaining outer wire and wrap it on the opposite side, the side that doesn't have any wires wrapped around it yet. Cut off the end and clamp down the end. Let the last wire end on that same side after bending it in position.

Step 24: Gryffindor - the Result

"We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on, that's who we really are. " - Sirius Black

Step 25: The Final Results

And that's all I have to say! I really hope you liked this project and found it useful. If you make a ring using these instructions yourself, I'd love to see the result : )