A ring as old as the earth

Inspired many years ago by David Windestal, I made this ring from a slice of Muonionalusta meteorite. It’s a meteorite that struck Sweden in about 1,000,000 BCE, but that was formed during the birth of the solar system. The texture that you can see — Widmanstätten patterns — appear when you etch the metal, and only form when a molten alloy of iron and nickel cools very slowly, in zero gravity.

Since the asteroid that eventually became this meteorite formed at about the same time the Earth was coming together, it’s almost certainly the oldest thing that I’ll ever see, or touch, and thinking about that slightly boggles my mind.

Processes

I cut by hand a blank for the ring from a slice of meteorite, and drilled out the centre. The ring itself I machined on the lathe, carefully boring the centre until it was a snug fit for the carbon fiber inner layer that protects the wearer (the ring contains nickel, which can irritate the skin). The outside was turned with the ring on a mandrel, and then polished to a high shine before being etched. To prevent rust, I dipped the ring in a self-levelling resin.