Have you ever loved something so much you would want to keep something on your person at all times to remind you of it? A memento from a loved one, perhaps. How about a tattoo of your favorite symbol?
Or maybe… a ring made from a bowling ball?
An avid bowler and ring maker, Patrick Adair decided to mix his two loves and craft a ring made exclusively from bowling ball parts.
“(A friend) sent me a few pieces of a bowling ball in the mail,” explains Adair. “He had used them in a video where he turned them on his lathe and made bowling bowls. I cut the remnants of the bowling balls into slabs with my diamond saw and then turned the slabs into rings. These are some really cool rings that have some amazing patterns similar to a resin ring.”





After taking some bowling ball halves to his diamond saw and cutting them into usable parts, Patrick starts drawing a couple of rings in different materials to determine which would be best turned into jewelry.


With two samples in hand, he moves over to his lathe and smooths out the ring shapes. While the rings are rotating on the lathe, Patrick takes a hacksaw and cuts down the material to a more suitable size for a human finger to wear.



To give the rings a more bowling ball-like quality, he uses a brand new radius turning tool to round out their outer diameters. To round out the outer diameter, he takes the machined rings to a whetstone to smoothen them out by hand.

For the interior parts of the rings, he takes them back to his lathe and uses several different grit sandpapers to shape the insides. Once the rings are smooth, he applies a good coat of ring polish to give them a reflective sheen.


Patrick then does the same thing with the outer parts of the rings, making sure to sand them with the same girt sandpapers and polishing them soon after.


For the finishing touch, he takes a small drill and adds three indents on each ring to resemble the finger holes of a bowling ball. He fills these holes with a mixture of CA glue and some pigment to give it some pizzazz.

The end result is a pair of rings which look like bowling balls, are shaped like bowling balls, and most importantly, are made from actual bowling balls. The three “holes” on each of the rings definitely makes them stand out and sell the whole bowling ball motif.
To see more of Patrick’s ring designs, be sure to check out his YouTube channel, Patrick Adair Designs.