Both of my projects were made in brass. The ring was a flat band that I pounded, soldered into shape and polished the heck out of it. I made the cuff first out of molding wax and had it sent off for casting. Once that piece came back, I filed it and polished it.
It was awesome to work on something, creating it out of such seemingly hard materials and shaping it to suit. My instructor Heather Rathbun was also pretty awesome - check out her work here.