UK Cover closeup - comments on the ring (no real spoilers)

[Tammy Rizzo]

No: HPFGUIDX 130497

On 11 Jun 2005 at 9:58, Chancie wrote:

> 
> With all the excitement over the full cover of HBP being 
> released, I thought a few of you might like to view this.
> As well as releasing the cover art for HBP they have
> also made a Screen Saver, with some VERY interesting
> art work. Here's the Link for anyone who would like to see:
> 
> http://www.mugglenet.com/viewer/?image_location=/hbp/ring.gif
> 
> 
>  ~*S*~
>  ~*P*~
>  ~*O*~
>  ~*I*~
>  ~*L*~
>  ~*E*~
>  ~*R*~
>  ~*~
>  ~*~
>  SPACE
> *********************
> 
> This page includes a VERY close up view of the Ring,
> and of the Hands in the "rope of fire".
> 
> It's clear that one of the hands appears to be MUCH
> older than the second as many have said, and the ring
> appears to be more black than anything else from what 
> I can see. If I had to call the design in the ring anything,
> it would probably have to be a lightning bolt, much like
> Harry's scar. Any other thoughts?

My father used to make jewelry, and I used to help him.  Of course, that was nearly 
25 years ago, but rocks don't change . . . much.  ;-)  Anyway, to me, that looks like 
either onyx, jet, or obsidian.  Onyx is similar to jade in many ways -- fairly soft, easy 
to crack, sensitive to heat.  Jet is *quite* soft, being a form of coal, and tends to 
actually melt and make greasy smears on things when overheated.  Obsidian, being 
a volcanic glass, is quite strong, but also very brittle, and though extremely heat-
resistant, can chip and shatter under sharp impact.

Now, the pattern on the stone looks very like a crack, with perhaps some chipping or 
spalling going on as well.  Either that, or the ring's upside down, and the pattern is a 
hand grasping a lightning bolt.  But I don't think it's that -- the 'bolt' pattern extends 
through the bevelled edge of the stone, toward the actual gold bezel that holds the 
stone in.  Most engraved stones (and it was a very common practice for centuries) 
restrict the engraved design to the flat face of the stone, for better clarity.

As for the construction of the ring itself, it lacks setting prongs -- those little tiny bent 
doohickies around the rock that keep it in place -- which tells me that the stone is 
not held in by prongs, but was cast into the ring itself.  See, for a very long time, 
now, most cast jewelry has been done in a 'lost wax' method, where the jeweler 
sculpts a wax original of the piece (ring, pendant, whatever), and then makes a 
plaster or sand mold around the wax.  Once the mold is completely hardened, the 
soft wax is melted out, leaving a hollow in the exact form of the piece to be cast.  
Molten metal is then poured into the mold, and voila!  There's your piece, all ready 
to be cleaned and polished.  Now, certain stones can take the heat of the molten 
metal, and are therefore sometimes set into the wax original, so that the setting is 
smooth and seamless around the stone, rather than set in place with bent-over 
prongs after the piece has been cast.  It's an aesthetics thing, y'see.  Anyway, the 
way this ring is constructed, with no prongs, means to me that the stone, whatever it 
is, was in place when the metal was poured.  That means it couldn't be jet -- that 
would have melted and burned up.  It's not likely to be onyx -- that tends to crack 
under the high heat of molten metals (I ruined my class ring, that I made for myself 
in high school, by setting the stone in the wax original and casting it in place -- it 
cracked in the heat).  My best guess would be obsidian, easily able to take the heat 
of molten gold (which, being very soft itself, melts at a relatively low temperature, 
compared to many other metals).

If it is a crack, it seems somewhat gaping, doesn't it?  I think it's shown that way to 
make it clear that it *is* a crack, not necessarily that it's a GAPING crack -- cracks 
in stones can be hard to depict in drawings, I suppose.  But it doesn't look, to me, 
like the type of crack obsidian would take -- like I said, that tends to shatter and 
chip.  The faint patterns to either side of the crack, though, could be chips . . . or 
they could be an actual engraving or etching, possibly of a crest or shield.  Obsidian 
doesn't like to be engraved, though it can be acid-etched, so maybe it is engraved 
onyx, and was unwisely cast in place, or possibly cracked sometime after being cast 
(onyx doesn't always crack in the heat, see), while possibly subjected to some 
mighty spellcasting, or something.

Oh, now, look at how I've gone on, here.  :-D  And I've been so comfortably lurking 
for so long, too!  I just had to get in on this, though.  :-D

***
Tammy Rizzo
ms-tamany at rcn.com

What were you in your pants that was still pining over and went to the
businessman?
          -- 'Atlanta Nights', by Travis Tea (chapter 34)