So, maybe I was a little to optimistic about my rings being finished. After conferring with my mentor, she expressed the concern that, “They take away from the wonderful rings you have done if they are really recognizable as what I can buy at the store.” I think she is right, in fact the purchased inner rings have been bothering me while I worked, but I wasn’t listening to myself; its a good thing that Betty spoke up!
The answer to the inner ring came quite quickly: another smaller/thinner ring of aluminum. It’s simple and provides what I’m looking for within each ring.
I also tried filling that ring today, which worked fine, but I’m not so sure of … The rocks here are actually styrofoam that I shaped to to resemble the source rock and then pigmented with refined colour from the process. It might work, but I need to look at it a little longer (and listen).