I had the privilege to travel to Indonesia last summer for two weeks in May 2012 with my family – my father lived in Jakarta from 1967 – 1971 while his father (my late grandfather) was in the US Embassy there.
We traveled to Yogyakarta and visited a silversmith shop, where I got to make my own custom ring by hand. This process included cutting the strips for the appropriate size, hammering and softening the metal, heating and sauding the pieces together until I was satisfied with my creation. I decided to make a chain ring – a base ring and a knuckle ring attached by two thin chains. The entire creation took about 2 hours, and includes a personal engraving inside the ring stating, ‘Jogja 5.2012.’