Short Assignment 1: Ring Description

I’m describing a ring I wear every day (and never take off). 

The metal band has a diameter that is about as wide as a single key on a laptop keyboard. The metal is silver. It remains untarnished. The band is extremely thin. One could slide it under the top of their fingernail. The circle isn’t smooth or perfectly round. It looks as though the parallel sides of the shape have been pushed away from one another, creating almost more of a triangle shape than a perfect circle. The band is slightly flat on the bottom, allowing it to stand up on its own flat surface. The band itself has a rectangular shape to it, meaning the band is not exactly cylindrical. This allows for space on the inside of the band for an engraving. 

On the inside of the band, “925” is stamped into the metal. The stamp is about the size of a gnat. The numbers are stamped in a dark black color, contrasting them against the silver metal. 

Three metal cone shapes protrude from one quarter-inch section of the silver band. They are small, smaller than the letters on the keys of the mentioned keyboard. They are only distinguished as three separate cones by the engraved lines on them. Without these lines, the cones are connected as one, three-pointed shape protruding from the band. One can discover this upon turning the band around to view the back of the shape, which is smooth and without engraved lines. 

The three cones are embellished with the same color engraving as the “925” on the inside of the band. They don’t all peak at the same height. From right to left. The cones are short, tall, and short again. The rightmost and leftmost cones peak at the same height and are slightly smaller than the middle cone. The engraved lines accentuate the wide bottoms of the cones, which sit closest to the band itself, and then taper up the sides of the cones. The lines also carve out small stem-like bases on the cones, which connect them to the band itself. The three cones are uniform; they look the exact same despite the varying sizes. There are six lines on each cone, all situated at a slanted angle on both sides of the cone as they taper upwards. This leaves a triangle shape at the top of each cone. 

Due to the engraved lines, the cones are left in arrow-like shapes, pointing up towards the sky when it sits on the table. The band is not displaced by the weight of the cones, and sits upright on the table due to the mentioned flat surface of the rectangular-like shape of the band itself. The design is fairly simple, and vaguely resembles a crown of sorts when it sits upright. When it is slid on a finger, it gives the illusion of there being no metal band at all, leaving just the cone shapes in the front. 

2 thoughts on “Short Assignment 1: Ring Description

  1. Hi Carlin,

    This is a beautiful and detailed description of an object that clearly holds significant meaning for you.
    From the onset, I love your description of the diameter as, “about as wide as a single key on a laptop keyboard.” I would not have come up with that description myself, but the comparison was strikingly simple and helpful in my ability to picture the ring. I also like the continuity of your keyboard comparison when later mentioning the size of the engraved letters. I was having a hard time picturing the three “cones” on the top of the ring before seeing the image. I think a comparison could be helpful here, but I recognize that I also need to practice my visualization without automatic assumptions or cues. Lovely writing!

  2. I really enjoyed your description of an object so personal to you. A particular part of your description I was drawn to was, “On the inside of the band, “925” is stamped into the metal. The stamp is about the size of a gnat”. I really liked how you used a gnat, something almost all of us have encountered, to describe the stamping on your ring. I really got the visual. Great Job!

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