As with the cat shelves, the original idea came from my long time partner in life, Heather. She wanted a commitment ring, made from wood, and made by me. Size 7
Quite a challenge for somebody that is not really a wood turner, but can run perfect circles on a CNC in three dimensions.
So here we are, supported by a 4 axis machine that is surprisingly precise in all directions (+-0.0015), even on the 4th axis. The experience gained by processing that much wood on the cat shelf line and the resulting fine finishes, purely because of repetition and continuous improvement in the process is and was invaluable to arrive at this stage.
Thinking about the idea, I figured that is something worth exploring - even at a commercial level and while doing that make it so that in can be repeated, which wasn't the case with the cat shelves.
Decomplication is the idea (that is a standing problem on cat shelves, the "make" process is too complicated to be handled by potential employees), which can be done with our upcoming Jewelry line, that should be easy.
On the business end, that move is only logical, because the cost would be much less to produce - no hardware purchases involved, lower cost of goods sold in general, the shipping cost would be minimal, compared to shipping a 30lb box for a customer from VA to CA (we've done that many times before). Going with a lighter product makes much more sense now.
Anyways, to get started, I've shot for the stars and decided to go all out into rings at first.
Preliminary research indicates that one shouldn't make a ring entirely cut from a solid piece of wood. The reasoning behind that is quite simple: It's not a matter of if it will crack on the wearer across the grain somewhere in the middle, but when...
This is a huge problem and I currently don't quite understand how a lot of vendors that sell these rings are getting away with it.
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