subject: Mokum Gane: Japanese Style Custom Jewelry [print this page] Combining two products together has always been a dominant idea in business. All industries are creating hybrids in order to cut back some cost but improve quality. The automobile industry produces hybrid vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Tin and copper are mixed together to create the durable metal bronze. But, most importantly, the jewelry industry has produced jewelry that contains mixtures of precious and non precious metals which is called mokume gane.
Mokume gane is a metal working technique that originated in Japan. When translated into English mokume gane roughly means "grain gain". This name is a description of the finished product which has streaks or grains of different metals. In the beginning this technique was only used for katanas (samurai swords) but, the decline of the samurai pushed artificers to make items purely for ornamental purposes. The traditional alloys that were used were gold, copper, silver and other alloys created from this trio of metals.
Nowadays the jewelry industry has taken the concept of mokume gane and expanded upon it to create a whole industry of mokume gane jewelry. Due to the technological advances of our era we are able to use many untraditional alloys such as iron, palladium, platinum, brass, bronze and nickel. Many other forms of gold are also available to use such as white, rose, and sage gold. Most professionals do not use copper any longer because it causes the jewelry to deteriorate fast and the grade of the piece is greatly deteriorated. Mokume gane has also taken a evident leap in the area of custom jewelry design specifically, custom engagement rings. The addition of mokume gane to the custom jewelry business has given the consumer the ability to customize his creation so much more. The combination of a mokume gane ring or bracelet with high performance stones such as hearts and arrows diamonds really does make the piece so much more special.
If you would like to learn more about custom jewelry design, visit: http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/
