The Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame, founded in 1991, celebrates the rich history of auto racing on Vancouver Island, dating back to 1912, and honors individuals who have significantly contributed to the sport. Inductees are selected annually through ceremonies that continue despite the museum's closure in 2022, recognizing personalities and their achievements in Vancouver Island's auto racing legacy.

The Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame Museum opens in 1991. Source: victoriaautoracinghalloffameandmuseum.com.

My goal: to turn the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame lapel pin into a signet ring. Soldering or gluing an enamel pin to a ring blank wouldn't do this project justice, so I designed the the signet ring from scratch as a solid piece in CAD.

The lapel bin that I based the design off of.

Concept and Design

The design of this ring is driven by the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame logo, featured on the lapel pin. No vector versions of the logo (publicly) existed online, so I reproduced the logo myself in Adobe Illustrator.

My traced version of the logo, courtsey of the pen tool.

The top of the signet ring embodies the logo crest, which the body of the ring flows into. To give the ring some dimensionality, I designed the flags to flow along the finger, as if flapping in the breeze behind the logo. The front of the ring shows the name of the inductee receiving the ring, and the back shows the year they are inducted.

The final design.

The ring was cast in brass, to match the golden color of the logo. 5 karat gold was out of the budget.

A final render, shown to the client before casting.

Materials

Brass. Enamel paint. Renaissance wax. Laquer.

Fabrication

Fabrication was trivial, as the ring comes back from the casting house as a solid piece. The ring was tumbled, then sanded, then polished. The logo and the individual cells in the flags were then filled with enamel paint, which I applied by hand using a tiny brush. Then the excess paint was removed using emory paper, revealing the golden lettering.

The raw casting of the ring.

I applied renaissance wax to the whole ring to prevent tarnishing. Unfortunately, the wax contained solvents that immediately dissolved the paint on the logo, so I had to repaint. With wax already applied to the body of the ring, I sprayed laquer over the top to protect the paint and lettering.

Conclusion