Let Becky Stern Show You How to Make a Silver RFID Ring

RFID tags and cards are a very convenient way to interact with technology. You can use them to unlock doors, trigger actions on your smartphone, and much more. Because RFID tags don’t require a battery and are so small and useful, it has become pretty popular for people to get them implanted in their hands. That can be done using the same chips that are used to tag pets for identification, but that’s still a scary prospect for a lot of people. If you’re prefer something a bit less intense, you can follow Becky Stern’s video guide to make a silver RFID ring.

There are plenty of RFID rings that you can purchase, so it definitely isn’t necessary to make your own. But this will be right up your alley if you enjoy making jewelry. Stern used an RFID tag designed for pets, which comes encapsulated in a small glass vial. That should be readable with most standard RFID readers, including those for Arduino boards and the one built into your phone.

There are many guides on the internet explaining how to work with RFID, so most of Stern’s video is focused on constructing the actual ring. To do that, she used silver wire. First, she spooled the wire around a cylindrical form and cut the spool into rings. Some heat from a butane torch can be used to braze the two ends together. Then she cut straight vertical posts to hold two rings together. Finally, small mounts were cut and brazed into place. Those were hollowed out with a rotary tool to create mounts for the RFID tag’s glass vial. With a bit of polish, the result is clean looking bit of wearable tech that you can use for a variety of RFID projects.