The owner of a metalworking company and his partner booked one with us Wedding ring goldsmith course, to make the base for a pair of very unusual wedding rings from the rare metal "tantalum" together with red gold under my guidance.
Tantalum is a very unusual material: In our solar system, tantalum is the rarest stable element. Even most acids seem to have little effect on this unusual metal. Due to its very special material properties, it is therefore considered to be very difficult to process and was therefore certainly a particularly "welcome" challenge for our two metal specialists 😉 .
The enchanting idea of the two course participants was for the bride to make a ring out of 1/3 red gold and 2/3 tantalum for her groom and vice versa for the groom to make the ring for his bride out of 1/3 tantalum and 2/3 red gold.
The ingenious plan of the two was also to prepare the base of these special red gold rings in advance during the wedding ring course, in order to then later connect them to the tantalum rings supplied in the groom's metal workshop. Since the metal tantalum resists every attempt at soldering with gold, both ring parts should later be connected to each other purely mechanically. A really demanding and ambitious goal for a one-day wedding ring course!
After intensive research, it was possible to find a supplier who was not only able to supply this rare metal, but also to process it into the desired ring shape. Here, of course, all dimensions had to be coordinated to the tenth of a millimeter.
But finally the time had come: the tantalum rings were delivered on time:
During the course, it quickly became clear how experienced the metalworker and his prospective bride could handle the precious metal red gold. The greatest challenge was certainly to prepare the golden rings so precisely that they can later be connected to the tantalum rings without any problems and only mechanically but in a stable manner.
In any case, as you can see from the picture at the top, this has now been achieved in the most excellent way. My very special respect therefore goes not only to the patient and dedicated bride, but also to the experienced metalworker who was able to tame this unusual material so confidently.
In any case, the result at the end of the course day is more than impressive:
All of us - me as the course leader and certainly also the two course participants - will probably remain in special and very pleasant memories of this extraordinary and highly exciting goldsmith course for a long time to come. From my point of view, the atmosphere during the course could hardly have been more pleasant.
And our "Corona security concept” evidently helped the two course participants to relax completely and concentrate entirely on their demanding and ultimately successful wedding ring project.
Thank you both again for this very special day...