So I have no health insurance and no income, but I'm doing everything humanly possible to change that. In the mean time, ring splints have been on my radar more and more lately. Doing everyday things like typing, carrying things, and holding things is getting more difficult and more painful, and my hands are hypermobile, so I feel like ring splints would help.

But there is hope for me. A good friend of mine, M, makes fairly high-end jewelry professionally. I don't mean she makes a few beaded bracelets here and there. I mean she works with metals and gemstones, sets up booths at fairs, and even has her product in a local store. She is hardly an amateur.

Anyway, another mutual friend, of ours, K, is a professional photographer, and takes photos of M's jewelry for her website. Together, they were kind enough to cut me a deal. Instead of M paying for K's photography, K told M to make my ring splints for me!

So I went to M's house one day, and together, we figured out how she could make a prototype. I showed her the splints from ZebraSplints.org, and we theorized about the different technical aspects of it. She made one splint for the center knuckle of my index finger. It probably took her less than 20 minutes from start to finish, and it's all polished and pretty, and I love it! She basically made two 16-gage silver rings and soldered them together.

At an EDS support group meeting a few days later, I showed off the ring splint to another group member who wears them, and she said it looks very close to what I would get through a certified hand therapist. She also said that my hands are very hypermobile. And while we're both SO excited that M and K did this for me, she did notice a few things that could improve. Here's everything she and myself have noticed:

1) I'm thinking the metal needs a flat edge to grip my fingers better. Thats what the splints from SilverRingSplint.com have. M used completely rounded metal, like a tube if that makes sense. So washing my hands makes it fall off. And I find myself pushing it back (towards my palm) a lot. It's definitely sized correctly. There's just more movement than I'd like there to be, even when you account for swelling.
2) The angles of the ring needs a bit more work. The larger of the two rings creates a gap when I bend my finger, and the smaller ring could stand to angle out more (I think?) to help stabilize that first finger joint.
3) The part where the two rings are soldered together on the underside of my finger - it doesn't sit exactly under my joint. It actually sits a few milimeters too far forward.

Again, it doesn't look bad at all. It looks great. I don't want to imply that I'm ungrateful or that I don't like it. I'm just so new to ring splints that I need some guidance. I have questions.

Is it feasible for M to make ring splints for me? She's extremely talented on the jewelry side of things. She just doesn't know much about the technical side of things. I'd like to support local business if I can, but is it possible? Or are ring splints so particular that I really need to do this through a certified hand therapist rather than a jeweler?

Thanks!

TL;DR: A friend of mine makes standard jewelry for a living, and has offered to make my ring splints for me since I'm uninsured and without an income. I need guidance as to whether or not that's feasible.