Couple ring workshop in Hongdae: free-form wax rings at Silver Family

I went to Silver Family for a ring making experience, one of my favorite unusual Hongdae dates with my partner! I've been to ring workshops quite a few times, but this time we tried something a bit different: a wax carving one-day class. Unlike the usual silver ring making, you carve and file wax yourself to shape the ring however you like. There's no set design, so each person can make their own free-form ring, and there's a lot of hands-on time, which made it really fun!

Silver Family (실버패밀리) ring workshop sits between Sinchon Station Exit 7 and Hongik Univ. Station, so it pairs nicely with a stroll along Gyeongui Line Forest Park on a date.

Where to find Silver Family ring workshop

Silver Family is about a 5-minute walk from Sinchon Station Exit 7. You can also walk from Hongik Univ. Station, so it fits easily into a Hongdae date route! Go in through the right-hand entrance next to the Seoul Milk building and head down to the basement level, and you'll reach the workshop. Look for the blue-lit Silver Family entrance!

How is wax carving different from a regular ring workshop?

Just so you know, solo visits are fine, and you can book on Naver Reservation for up to 4 people. Inside there are workbenches with all kinds of tools and a space where you make the ring yourself. First, we looked through various ring samples and thought about what design we wanted!

In regular ring making you often just refine a basic shape, but with wax carving you make the shape itself. So even if two people pick the same design, the results differ depending on who makes it! We were recommended a free-form style with natural curves.

Carving a ring out of wax, step by step

Now the wax carving begins! You file the wax down to a marked line, shaping the thickness and form you want.

First you get a green wax ring and check the size against your finger. Another plus of wax carving is that fixing mistakes is relatively easy! Unlike carving metal directly, you can add wax back or use heat to adjust the shape as needed.

The shape changes as you carve bit by bit, and it took more handwork than I expected. The interesting part is that it doesn't have to be perfectly even; the natural curves become the design itself!

I actually liked the free-form style with uneven angles.

At the end, they used heat to smooth out the surface of the ring. The best part for me was how much of the work you do by hand.

Watching the bumpy surface turn smooth under the heat was so cool, haha!

The finished free-form wax ring and adding cubic zirconia

After lots of carving and smoothing, the green wax ring was finally done! They cast silver from this wax model and finish it to make the real silver ring. The workshop also had cubic zirconia stones in several colors, so we could add them in whatever style we wanted!

Vintage workshop interior and a mirror photo spot

After we finished, we looked around the workshop. Unlike typical ring workshops, Silver Family has a huge number of vintage props. There's also a big mirror, which was a great spot to take a photo with my partner. Besides the Hongdae ring making experience itself, the space had plenty to look at too!

When can you pick up your wax-carved ring?

Wax carving pieces can't be picked up the same day, since they need silver casting and finishing. We were told we could collect them from about a week after the class. I did the class on a Saturday and got the call that it was ready around Thursday. Then I picked it up in person over the weekend! Trying on our rings together, the shapes were each a little different, which made me like them even more~

Silver Family wax carving class at a glance

• Experience: Wax carving silver ring making, with a lot of hands-on carving and smoothing (from ₩110,000 per person)
• Design: Make your own free-form piece, each in the shape you want
• Pickup: Guided from about 1 week later; pick up in person or choose shipping
• Date idea: Make couple rings or friendship rings. Recommended when you want something different to do in Hongdae!