Wednesday, 25th February 2004 (5524 views)

Oklahoma jewellery designer Al Nix has risen to the challenge of fashioning an unusual ring.

Mr Nix received a request from one of his customers, Michael Burton, to fit a glass eye into a ring and used the opportunity to fashion a remarkable piece of gold jewellery.

Mr Burton had to have his old artificial eye replaced after 35 years, but did not want to part with it, so he contacted Mr Nix and his team, who designed and made a unique gold setting for the eye over two months.

Three ounces of gold was used to set the eye as a stone and the finished ring was then presented to a delighted Mr Burton, who said that he wouldn't even trade his eye ring for a real eye.

'That eye cost me $2,000 35 years ago,' Mr Burton told the Associated Press. 'It took three days for people to hand-paint that eye. To throw it away would be like buying a new car and just taking my old car to the dump. I guess it's like they say - one man's trash is another man's treasure.'

'I couldn't believe he wanted to make a ring out of a glass eye. I thought to myself, 'We can make a good-looking ring out of this,' even though it is the oddest piece we've ever done,' Mr Nix added.

 

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