It has been a busy week and boy am I tired but I wanted to update this as I truly enjoy doing it.
I am going to talk a bit about one of my favorite materials to work with - mokume gane. I first saw it in one of my jewelry magazine and I was HOOKED! It is such a fascinating metal as no two pieces are alike. In addition, there are so many different metals which can be used to create mokume gane.
Mokume is a mixed metal laminate with a distinctive pattern. Mokume is a Japanese term and it comes from late 1600's - 1800's when the Samuri sword was transitioned from being tool for fighting to a symbol of the warrier class. Mokume gane translates into a wood grain metal. The lamination process involves many layers, sometimes, 10-30 layers of copper, gold, sterling, and platinum between steel blocks and heating them in a kiln allowing the layers to fuse not melt. The billet is them forged and rolled to the desiured thickness. The patterns are created by hand carving down through the layers.
That is a background on this fascinating metal. I have worked with two patterns, random and river and have only worked with Sterling silver and copper. I have attached my latest ring which was created with Mokume gane. Enjoy!
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