Bruce writes:
i'm glad you guys liked the rings. it was an idea i had back in october. i wanted to buy a high grade decoder ring but googling for hours turned up nothing. contacting half a dozen "custom" jewelry shops was unfruitful - they all said "nice idea, but we can't/don't do that sort of thing".
finally, i went to jan's brother chris, who works at ideo. he set me up with a stanford classmate of his who runs a design/fabrication shop (www.unovo.com). i don't know what they do normally, but they totally grokked the project and we exchanged e-drawings of several designs (while i was on vacation in europe!). i've attached two pics that they sent me of the manufacturing process.
yes roger, there is a groove inside the silver part and two posts in the purple part to hold it together. the metal is anodized aircraft aluminum. the letters were laser etched. i don't know if extras were made; one set was produced and had to be scrapped because the letter etching didn't take into account the different ring sizes.
i'm just glad that i can finally wear mine to work :)
[Attached photos: #1 laser etch sample; #2: Aluminum in lathe]