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Mokume is a beautiful craft dating back to 17th century Japan for use in sword-making, characterized by a woodgrain like appearance of many layers of different metals fused together to make one piece. This specialized technique of successfully forging together sheets of metal into one billet so that they are bonded and structurally sound requires great skill and years of experience as a metalsmith. 

And with this method of creating and patterning rings by hand, either through forging or carving, there is an inherent variability to how the appearance of the ring will ultimately turn out! One of the things Arn loves about mokume and the practice of making it is that not all aspects of how the final ring will look is controllable, which makes each one truly unique. We know that you love this aspect of mokume as well.  Nature never makes the same thing twice and this is one of the most striking and under-recognized aspects of what we attribute beauty to. Much like life, handmade things are unpredictable and beautiful.  

When you order your ring with us there a few paths to consider. We can help you unravel the work of choosing by walking you through the process a bit here.  We offer Custom and  Bespoke options. 

Firestorm in particular of all of our billets has a range of variation that can be more noticeable and less controllable, as it is a four color combination, rather than two or three. As in its name, this palette is meant to be a whirlwind of color all mixed together to echo the complex and mesmerizing varieties of nature. 

Custom vs. Bespoke 

Our bespoke options are studio-approved alterations to existing AKM designs. For example you love the pattern but would like a different stock pallet that we offer ; while custom orders are designed from the ground up! This requires much more communication time as well as time at the bench, than a bespoke alteration.  

We wish you all a happy holiday season and a bright new year, and look forward to continuing to create with you!

Much love,

Arn Krebs Mokume 

The Custom Design Experience

At Arn Krebs Mokume we offer the unique opportunity to customize and design an heirloom piece of jewelry within our mokume aesthetic. We are so honored to create these pieces for our customers and to work together to build truly special and one-of-a-kind pieces of work.

We have put together this overview to help you understand the steps and conversations involved in creating your completely unique piece of art, and hopefully make it a truly enjoyable process.

Read more about it here and check out some killer examples below.

Let's get started!

Consultation & Design

How long this part of the custom process takes varies widely depending on how complicated the design is. Sometimes people come to us knowing exactly what they want, while others have more of a general concept or an idea for something new. We’ll work with you to build out the details from the ground up!

When you inquire about a ring design, we start the process of your custom order with a conversation about what you are looking for. Do you know what pattern, palette, finish, and other design options you’d like, or would you like some guidance? Do you want a plain band, or are you looking to incorporate stones? If you want to use stones, what kind? How would you like them set? And don’t worry — we’ll guide you through this process!

Also during this time we’ll create quotes, Arn may make some sketches, and we will answer any questions you have.

Communication & Details

Once all the details have been decided on, you’ll place your deposit and enter our work queue. We ask for a 50% deposit to get started, with the remainder due once production is complete.

Sizing

Did you know your ring size can vary depending on the width of a band? We’ll send you a few different sizers (plain metal bands in different sizes) for a $50 fee, and you’ll have two weeks to try them out and send them back. We recommend you wear them as consistently as possible, because finger size fluctuates throughout the day and even from week to week. We want to create a ring that will fit you comfortably every day.

Gemstone Sourcing (Heirloom, Lab-grown or Natural?)

After we begin our conversations, you are welcome to send us heirloom stones if you’re reusing them from older jewelry pieces. Please let us know if you send them by mail; we'll want to keep a close eye out for them. We love being able to give these sentimental pieces a fresh breath of life by incorporating them into new designs!

We have some great suggestions of gemstones we work with, and love, on a regular basis, but Arn is also available to personally source stones for your design based on the setting style and your tastes. We have trusted stone dealers with established relationships from whom we can source lab grown or natural diamonds, sapphires, moissanites, and other stones. Understandably, this does increase project scope and turnaround time. We also welcome stones that you have sourced, but Arn must check them out first to be sure they are quality cuts and suited to the setting.

Recycling Your Metal

We’d love to be able to re-use your metal, but unfortunately we can’t properly fuse metal with unknown alloys into mokume. BUT, we can take it and melt it down and give you a credit towards your final purchase. Or, if the the metal has sentimental value, we have a few creative ways to incorporate the metal into a rail or a dot in all of our rings.

Production Time

Production time varies depending on the design and pattern. Most of our standard bands will be ready to ship in 6-8 weeks, but more complicated and customized rings can take closer to 10-11 weeks, so keep this in mind while planning! We do offer rush services for an extra fee, but it’s always best to plan as far ahead as you are able.

If you have questions that come up while you’re waiting for your ring to be completed, we are always here to answer them!

Project Completion

Once your ring is finished, we’ll be in touch to let you know that we are sending over professional images of your completed ring so that you can preview (and have a keepsake). Once you approve your order, we’ll send an invoice for your final payment and ship it out! So exciting!

Shipping

We use secure USPS Priority shipping for our US orders, which is included in your final cost, and UPS for international orders, which is an additional fee. Both are very reliable services, and we purchase insurance for all shipments. We’ll notify you when your ring ships with all tracking info, and follow-up to make sure you love your ring!

We hope this has answered your questions and shown you that designing a custom ring is really quite simple (especially when someone else is doing the hard work!). We'd love to share more and guide you through the process, so please don't hesitate to contact us by just hitting reply to this email, or clicking the button below. Lastly, check out our NEW website, it's gorgeous!

Be well!

Arn Krebs, Sue Freda &
The Arn Krebs Team

We offer a few different options for the finish of your mokume gane ring, and each offers a different look and quality. One of these options is oxidation, where the silver layers in a ring are darkened to increase the contrast between the metal colors! It’s great for those who want a bold, high contrast look, and makes the patterning stand out more.