Mokume Gane Star Earrings

We know that designing your ring can feel daunting with so many options to choose from so we have put together this guide to explain the options.

Ordering Online~ Please see our design guide to choose your rings size, width, pattern, palette, and any stones or add ons that you might like. From there reach out to us and we can build you a quote, discuss timeline, and send an invoice for 50% deposit to get your order into our work queue.

Seeing Rings in Person~We make every piece to order so we don’t have a large collection of rings on hand, once the ring has been made and photographed its off to its new owner! We do have an intimate collection of already made rings that are ready to size and ship. These samples may not necessarily be the pattern, size or width that you are interested in but you’ll be able to see what metal colors look like in person and get a feel for Arn’s craftsmanship. You can choose which ring(s) you would like to see from our available now section which is the inventory we currently have in stock. You can find a link to our available rings here. If you would like to see any of these rings in person please know that our showroom operates on limited hours and is by appointment only. The fastest way to be in touch and to book an appointment is via email.

Showroom Hours of Availability

~by Appointment only~

9am – 2pm, M-F

Call us at: (401) 287-8050

Email us: info@arnkrebsmokume.com

Seeing Rings By Mail~ To see any of our available now rings by mail please reach out to us and let us know what you are interested in seeing. The cost of the Ring Sample mail program is $100-$300 depending on how many rings you would like to see. Up to 3 at ($100 per ring) This fee covers shipping and insurance and is non-refundable. If you decide to proceed with your order, we will apply $75 per ring towards your order. Rings may be kept for up to 48 hours. We ask for a copy of your driver’s license and your credit card info to authorize the full retail value of the rings in the event that they are not returned to us with 48 hours. Please be mindful that these rings are your responsibility while they are in your possession.

Flow is one of Arn’s specialty forged patterns! This is one of his most complicated patterns, so he wanted to document some of the process to show you how he brings it to life. Come along on the journey from stock to ring!

Some assembly steps, those little rods will be the knots, and the flat stock will be the linear part of the mokume pattern running around the ring!

Here Arn is torch firing the stack to fuse everything together:

And then it’s over to the press to compress the stack, check out that satisfying squash!

Here’s what the stock for the ring looks like reduced down: 

And Arn continues to shape the stock into the dimensions for a ring:

Here he is etching the silver: 

And oxidizing the silver:

And the final reveal!

We have noticed many questions lately regarding the quality and longevity of mokume rings that contain silver, so we wanted to take some time to talk about why we choose to include silver in our mokume palettes, and the benefits this metal brings to creating beautiful and heirloom quality rings.

One of the primary reasons we use silver is for visual contrast! Silver is able to be either the lightest or darkest color in a metal combination, and either option contrasts extremely well against the golds and palladium we use in our palettes.

Shown below here is the same ring, made in our Firestorm palette, but with two different finishes. It’s amazing how different a ring can look just by darkening the silver layers with oxidation! The silver layers go from practically white to almost black in color.
Read more about our different finishes in this blog post.

Silver is also very ductile, it has great bonding and forging characteristics, both of which are very beneficial in making strong and stable mokume billets!

One of the core values of our business are to make mokume as affordable as possible for as many people as we can. We want to create high quality pieces at a reasonable price and keep mokume accessible when possible. Using silver layers helps greatly in lowering the production costs as opposed to making solely all gold mokume.

Will the silver layers oxidize/tarnish on their own?

No, with regular wear the silver should not oxidize on its own, silver actually only will change color if left to sit for extended periods of time or if exposed to chemicals like sulfur or chlorine! Well water may contain sulfur, so that would be something to watch for, but if your ring were to accidentally get oxidized it’s very easy to remove. Any commercial silver cleaner can easily take it right off.

The silver layers also do not compromise the structural integrity of the ring or affect the wear. It takes more than a lifetime of wear to truly wear down metal enough to compromise a ring, and this applies to precious metals like gold too. Silver wears very well, and the silver in our rings is completely nickel free, as nickel sensitivity/allergy is very common, even often leading to people thinking they have a silver allergy, but really the culprit is the nickel content!

If you’d still prefer a silver free ring, we do offer all gold palettes! We have our Blaze and Cinders palettes, which are combinations of 18kt Yellow Gold, 14kt Red Gold and 14kt Palladium White Gold.

We also offer custom billets if you want to create your own combination!

We often get questions about metal palette colors, and we’ve noticed sometimes it seems unclear which metals are which, especially because the colors can look different in the context of different palettes! So we’ve created these diagrams of a few of our more popular palettes to help point out which metals are which. 

We know choosing the details for your custom ring can be overwhelming, so many choices! So we wanted to put together a checklist of factors to consider when deciding on your ring design.

Ring Dimensions 

Ring size (if you aren’t 100% sure on your size but have a general idea, we have a ring sizer service! More info here.)Ring width.

Pattern and Palette
See all of our pattern and palette options here on our design guide page! 
 
Stones (if applicable)
You can repurpose stones you already have (depending on suitability and their condition), or we are happy to source stones for you!
For rings we usually recommend certain stones over others, for more info on choosing stones check out this blog post. 

Specific likes and/or dislikes
Each mokume ring is a unique handmade piece, there will be variations in pattern, color, etc. Please let us know if you have specific preferences, not all factors are controllable (as is the inherent nature of Mokume Gane), but we can advise on which options would be best suited for what you’re looking for.
It can be helpful to pick out a few example rings from our listings to show us what you like!

Timelines
Different patterns and designs have different wait times, some rings will require only a 6-8 week timeframe, while others can be booked out 6 months or more. 
Please let us know if you have a specific date you would need to have your order delivered by! Each order in our work queue is worked through one by one, so we offer an estimated completion window rather than a firm completion date. To guarantee delivery by a specific date requires a rush order (if we are able to accommodate it in our calendar at the time).
 
Returns
Please contact us before returning any items. Not all custom orders may be returned. 
Our return/restock policy

Take a look at these behind the scenes shots from Arn’s process while making a recent custom order! This is a customized cathedral style setting to hold this big and beautiful Alexandrite stone. 

This ring is also a great example of the Star pattern, which is a variation of Twist, this usually occurs with carving into a Twist ring, we love seeing how carving a different profile (in this case this beveled look for a more crisp and geometric feel) affects the pattern on the ring.

(The palette shown here is Embers – 14kt Red Gold, Palladium 500 and Sterling Silver)