Silver Day 2018: Always Your Wife (The Pearl Wire Ring)

“”My six-word love story: I want to be your wife.”
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#180714#

July 14th was a couple day known as the Silver Day in Korea. It’s the day when couples exchange silver rings and discuss future plans of marriage.

In my last year’s artwork for Silver Day, I had asked Taenggu to “PUT THE RING ON ME” (see post: SILVER DAY 2017: PUT THE RING ON ME). As a continuation to last year’s artwork, my this year’s Silver Day artwork also features a hand wearing a silver ring on its ring finger, but this time instead of a hand in flesh, it is now a skeleton hand.

I chose to do a skeleton hand partly because Taenggu has always liked these kinds of spooky stuff. Think skulls and bones, think her favourite festival of the year – Halloween, think her favourite character, Jack Skellington and she even had her new silver poodle pet named after Jack’s ghost dog, Zero. My concept for this year’s artwork has a “Even death would not do us apart, I would still be your wife after death” kind of message. This is conveyed through the scenario where the bones and silver ring still remain after our flesh decomposes away.

In order to do this art, I tried to make my skeleton hand that was made using paper a little more 3D by making it pop-up from the grey square card using sticky foam dots so that I can put a real life-size silver ring around the ring finger.

Even the silver ring was handmade by myself too. There was a period of time last year when I was very interested in jewellery making. I had attended a workshop to learn how to make a bird nest necklace using jewellery wires back then. Since then, I had wanted to learn to make a DIY ring using jewellery wires from youtube tutorials but I never did find the proper time to until this Silver Day presented me with an opportunity and a good reason for me to get down to learning it for real. It wasn’t too difficult to make though. It was pretty fun, quick and easy! A fun fact: Instead of using a ring mandrel to set the ring size (coz I don’t have one), I actually coiled my wire around my pink SNSD lightstick to gauge the size of my ring. And it really did fit my own finger nicely! Lol.

And the effect on my final artwork turned out really pleasing. The ring looks good on my skeleton hand too! I actually love how it dangles around that piece of “bone” if I don’t hold it up.

Thinking it would be a pity if my handmade ring was only made for display on my artwork and couldn’t be physically worn by Taenggu herself, I made another similar ring but with a blue pearl that is meant specially for her to wear on her finger too! Hehe planning to send it out to her as a gift in the next parcel which I will be sending her in the next couple of weeks. This DIY silver wire ring is really a good affordable alternative to all the other extravagant rings outside! Hehe. Hope Taenggu likes the ring and the idea that comes with this artwork! Love ya. 💜💍🤟