I'm working on a new routine to do a ring and string close up sitting at a table. I've done ring and rope as a stand up with a larger ring but not all the moves translate to a smaller ring and sitting down.
If you have suggestions or know of resources let me know. I'm open to all ideas, the ring I'm using is about 2" in diameter and the string is really a shoe lace.

Thanks

Check out both Colombini's dvd's and written manuscripts. Many effects can be done with smaller ring. (Ring around and Ring around 2)

Many effects for finger rings cannot be 'upscaled' while many ring on rope effects can be 'down-scaled'.

suggestion: by going smaller and close up you must allow spectator handling of the items and should prefer effects "in their hands."

Most of the work on ungimmicked ring and string magic has either been developed with a finger ring (for which a shoelace works well - trim the aglets) or a large ring (typically 6 to 8 inches) and a rope or ribbon. The "large ring" effects can be done with a shoelace and a four-inch, thin gauge ring, but it is hard to adapt most of them to even smaller rings. For a sit-down performance with a 2 inch ring a good trick would be Stewart James "Sefalaljia" (the name is an invented word that means "headache"). You can also use ring and ribbon moves. For instance, check out Jay Scott Berry "Symphony for Ring and Ribbon" which can be done with a 2 inch ring (note - he published two different versions of this trick). Additional material can be sourced from Aldo Colombini, Dan Fleshman, Diamond Jim Tyler, Scott F. Guinn and Tabary, among others. Good luck developing your routine.

Jay Scott Berry's Ring and Ribbon work is awesome. I would start there.

I do the REALLY OLD ring onto string trick under cover of a handkerchief, then get rid of the handkerchief and take the ring off the string.

These are really beginners' tricks, but I get a lot of mileage out of them. You may read many versions where they use a safety pin to bind the string in that first trick --- but for me, the best one was in Harry Lorayne's The Magic Book, where you tie the ring onto the string.

As pointed out above, there are MANY much more sophisticated finger ring and shoelace routines out there, and you will have a good time researching them, but sometimes there is something to be said for simplicity.

Full disclosure: I probably practiced the ring off string routine 300 - 400 times before I showed it to anyone, because I thought it was "too simple" to fool anyone. But the first person I showed it to was a magician friend, and his first reaction was, "How the he** did you do that?!" I knew right then that I had a keeper.

Try the following resources:

Dan Fleshman
Daryl in the Rope series
Eric Decamps
Bob Miller