Making Mokume Gane Weddingrings...

We got married on the 4th of May (May the fourth) and went to Netherlands to make our own unique wedding bands together with a goldsmith located in Hertogenbosch (den bosch). We had found her off the internet through her website, http://www.metalartcreations.nl/

Part of the fun and excitement of making your own wedding or engagement rings is customization, so you can select materials and styles that are perfect for you.  Different styles require different amounts of time and effort to create. 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 is a traditional way of working metals that originated in Japan and was used to adorn the hilts of swords in 17th century Japan,

We arrived to Birgit Doesborgs werkwarenhuis, at 10.00 on Friday morning the 5th of May.

After a short introduction and coffee we were ready to get to work, and Birgit Doesborg showed us how to proceed with each part of the procedure to making the rings. And then we got to try and replicate the procedures together with Birgit.

After working the Mokume, it has to be reheated to get back the gold and silvers inherent properties of being soft. After working the metal it hardens, which is actually the opposite reaction to working with iron. Iron for example is hammered hot, and hardens in cold water, as to gold and silver which is hammered cold, but soften in the heat and cold water rinse.

Here I am trying my hand on the mokume metal strip.

Later in the procedure we cut the metal to the correct length after careful measure, and could start forming the rings.

Here is a simple form of a mokume gane ring. We of course had more plans as we wanted to mount this ring on top of our 18K golden engagement rings!

Here I am admiring the pattern of the ring.

Our engagement rings were carefully placed inside and fitted together with the Mokume!

We really wanted our engagement rings to transform into our wedding rings, and not have separate rings for both occasion. We also thought that it was a beautiful transformation, just as marriage transform a relationship. That´s why we chose to use our engagement rings as a liner/lining inside of the new ring!

On the picture you can see how we have done some work on them to file the metal down to a more flat surface before placing the Mokume on top of the them.

There were a lot of work that went into fitting them nicely, and it is to much to show here in this blog. But this is a picture of our finished results. 

What we love about Mokume, is the fact that the same metal goes into both rings, so they have similar patterns. They are literally made from the same piece! Birgit Doesborg is an excellent goldsmith and we recommend this experience for couples who are interested in different kinds of handcraft. 

Making our own rings together is a memory that will last a lifetime!