Mokume Gane Wedding Rings
Mokume is an ancient Japanese technique of fusing distinct layers of precious metals, then forming them to create beautiful patterns. Mokume gane wedding rings must be created by hand, so each pair is unique.
Mokume Gane Star Pattern Wedding Rings
The star pattern is an easier pattern to create in my wedding ring making classes. While each star is unique, the technique creates a pair of rings whose stars closely resemble each other. This is a charming feature in a pair of wedding rings.
Mokume Gane Woodgrain Wedding Rings
For the woodgrain pattern, a mokume billet is carved and forged to create lines and burls reminiscent of a piece of wood. While this technique is labor (and talent) intensive, you also have more control over the final look as you carve the metal yourself.
Silver & White Gold Mokume Wedding Rings
The mokume gane wedding rings we create in my shop are made from layers of fused silver and gold. You have a few choices of the shades of gold we use. The most popular color combination is silver and white gold, as pictured here.
Silver, Yellow, & White Gold Mokume Wedding Rings
It is a little counter-intuitive, but adding yellow gold to the mix actually makes the pattern more subtle, since yellow gold and silver have less contrast than silver and white gold. Pricing is the same as silver and white gold.
Silver, White, & Red Gold Mokume Wedding Rings
Equally awesome is the Mokume Gane combination of silver, white gold, and red gold. All color combinations and patterns are interchangeable and equally beautiful.
Mokume Gane Profiles
We can make mokume wedding rings either flat or rounded. In this photo we have one of each. Most wedding rings pictured on my site are flat only because they are easier to photograph. Rounded mokume rings are a little more time consuming to make and incur a small extra fee.
Liners on Mokume Gane Wedding Rings
While liners look great on mokume wedding rings, we put them on for other reasons as well. The silver in mokume is less dense than gold, and a solid gold or platinum liner can add some extra weight to the rings. Also, for bigger rings we can use the liner to extend the size of the pattern. Finally, it can make the rings more comfortable for people with sensitivity to sterling silver.
Etched Mokume Wedding Rings
The silver in mokume gane can be etched to create relief that will make the pattern pop. It is magical to watch rings transform into very different, but equally beautiful versions of themselves. Etching takes extra time and incurs a surcharge.
Rails on Mokume Gane Wedding Rings
We can also add rails to a pair of mokume wedding rings to frame the pattern. The rails can be raised – as in this case – or flush. This pair of rings also feature liners, because they are badass.
Tri-Gold Mokume Gane Wedding Rings
Remember the color combinations listed above? There are more. We can make rings from yellow and red gold sandwiched between layers of white gold. This combination has a truly royal look, but is truly expensive as well.
Mokume Gane Inlay
We can inlay mokume gane into gold or platinum rings or vice versa. Remember that, while inlay looks cool in photographs, it is very subtle in person. More dramatic is inlay of gold into a mokume ring.
Seams on a Mokume Wedding Ring
Mokume wedding rings we make in our shop will have a seam where the ends of the strip are joined together. While we try to match the ends so that the pattern is continuous, the seam can usually be found. The seam is visible on the right side of the ring.
Photos of Mokume Gane Wedding Rings
Mokume looks much more dramatic in photos than it does in person. The tools we use to minimize reflections in jewelry photography also tend to create more color contrast than exists in real life. This photo is slightly more life-like with the reflections visible in the ring. If you are new to mokume, I recommend looking at some examples in person.
Mokume Gane Billet
When we make mokume gane wedding rings in our workshop, we start with a billet of precious metal layers that are already fused. All of the patterns you see above are created from billets just like this. It usually takes 10-14 hours to create a pair of mokume gane rings in my workshops.
