Ric La Ban

Ric has been a silversmith for over twenty years. His silver journey began in 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he apprenticed for a lapidary who designed settings for the stones he cut and polished. Ric worked with two other silversmiths building the settings.

After two years of apprenticeship, Ric struck out on his own. Over the years he has had much success designing and building whimsical pieces for himself, with some of the recent ones now available on this website. He has also designed many custom pieces for clients.

First is the decision of what to create. Then, perhaps, a drawing or not. Some pieces are clear enough in Ric’s mind that he can go from concept to finished piece without putting anything on paper. Other times, the only way for him to see it at all clearly is to sit down and make one or more crude drawings. One piece began with a drawing and then a lot of thought over a two year period. He thought it out well enough during the building process which was sporadic over those two years that he did not have a single oops or do-over. No one was more amazed than Ric. 

Ric manufactures all of his silver. He purchases casting grain that he mixes (50-50) with his scrap to maintain the sterling balance and pours ingots that are 75 x 50 x 4 mm. An ingot can be rolled to any dimensions Ric needs for a given piece. He also makes all of his tubing as needed. He pours rods that are 75 x 7 mm. This he rolls into square wire and draws that into round or triangular wire as needed. Ric wastes none of his metal.