Pogo said:
Nice ring,
But $900 for a sterling silver ring that you provided the gold for, Ouch.
$900 for a custom made sterling silver ring that is wide & thick enough to allow a machined groove for the gold isn't that bad. Especially when you consider that the gold will need to be matched to the groove size & then each small piece of gold has to be individually soldered into place. Not a quick or easy task.
A basic chunky silver ring can set you back up to $200 or places like Tiffany's with more fancy designs + gold or other materials anywhere up to $2k.
$900 for a personalised, custom ring that there will be no other exact copy of isn't bad IMO.
One tip Alienslayer is to provide as much smooth alluvial type gold as possible. Small reefy bits look nice but are a lot harder to solder due to the porous nature of them. The jeweller I used has been making custom jewellery for decades & said it was definitely a challenge to do mine.
Some bits may need to be flattened a little or trimmed to fit but the look of natural gold is great.https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/4485/1602543833_20191117_101802.jpg