Video: jewellery making with the wife

And after spending three days melting shiny metals with blow-torches and bashing them with a big hammer, the Mrs and I were in total agreement.

We were not man and wife at that point but a wedding was imminent and had decided to make our own rings.

So after a little internet research we stumbled upon Lincoln jeweller Richard Bett - a lively, fun-loving chap with a funny sense of humour.

A qualified jeweller with more than 30 years’ experience, Richard provides a jewellery service in which people design and make their own rings.

What we both really enjoyed about the experience was the amount of participation - you are literally making a ring from beginning to end.

Said Richard: “One of the things I like is solving problems - when people come to me I do not know them from Adam.

“They are a completely blank canvas so I have to make out in a very short time what they want.

“I think people enjoy it because they learn the basics of each section of the process of manufacturing a ring.

“The other thing is I am open to ideas and always ask people what they think so they are involved.”

Myself and the wife, Jenny, decided to make Mokume rings - which involved melting down white gold, yellow gold and silver, twisting them together and reheating them until fused.

To help with costs and because we are a both a bit soppy we brought old family rings along with us, such as Jenny’s late dad’s wedding band, to melt down.

Once the rings were moulten red, like in the films, we both had a go at dipping them in water to cool them off and hammering them into long, thin, strips to be fused together.

This was repeated many times, with the addition of some clever work from Richard which sadly could not be attempted by our unskilled hands, until we finished up with two custom wedding rings.

If you would like to find out more about Richard’s jewellery workshop visit his website at www.richardbett.com.