Inside the unusual work of Mokume Gane Jewellery

As consumers become more and more intrigued by niche jewellery finishes, the ancient craft of Mokume gane has recently found popularity Mokume gane is a technique derived from ancient Japanese metalsmith work that follows on from the creation of Damascus steel Specialising in mokume gane and Damascus silver, Steven Midgett is a modern pioneer of the craft and one of the earliest metalsmiths to incorporate platinum into his billets - prior to this, mokume gane primarily utilised copper, silver and gold metals.

Hood says the tricky part about mokume gane production is the forging of different metals to create quality billets for jewellery production and says producing billets without side effects takes time and patience Hood agrees there is more than one way to get involved in producing mokume gane jewellery and emphasises that there are manufacturers willing to share their techniques to market the small field When asked why mokume gane customers often return to purchase more of the product, Hood believes it stems from a primal desire for natural-looking patterns in jewellery.

"It seems that we are drawn to organic patterns, which is something that mokume gane can do in spades We have a solid mokume gane client list and our repeat offenders really push us to create more and more unusual and challenging wpieces," he says. . Source