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Susan Freda - Commissions & Designers

Posted by Susan Freda on


Making it Flow - Arn's Signature Mokume Pattern

Posted by Susan Freda on

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 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 see the final ring here!

Read more

Making it Flow - Arn's Signature Mokume Pattern

Posted by Arn Krebs on

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 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 see the final ring here!

Read more


Autumn Studio Sale!

Posted by Arn Krebs on

Hello all! For those that may have missed it in the summer, Sue is having a November open studio event! 
Come join us on Friday November 10th to see Sue's work! Sculpture and jewelry will be available to see in person.
The studio sale will be 10-3 in our Warren, RI studio at Cutler Street. We hope you can make it!

Read more

Autumn Studio Sale!

Posted by Susan Freda on

Hello all! For those that may have missed it in the summer, Sue is having a November open studio event! 
Come join us on Friday November 10th to see Sue's work! Sculpture and jewelry will be available to see in person.
The studio sale will be 10-3 in our Warren, RI studio at Cutler Street. We hope you can make it!

Read more


Mokume Maker Insights - Why Silver?

Posted by Susan Freda on

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!

Read more

Mokume Maker Insights - Why Silver?

Posted by Arn Krebs on

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!

Read more


New Tension Set Ring!

Posted by Arn Krebs on

Arn just completed this beautiful tension set style ring! We love tension settings, they create such a fantastical illusion of the stone floating. Arn documented his process in creating this design, from stock billet to forming and patterning, to setting the stone and finishing the ring.

This ring also features one of Arn's signature patterns, Guri Bori, inspired by the natural landforms and topography of the western US. The added thickness needed for this style of setting really helps to create that mountainous look!

 

  

 

See a video of the completed ring here!

Read more

New Tension Set Ring!

Posted by Susan Freda on

Arn just completed this beautiful tension set style ring! We love tension settings, they create such a fantastical illusion of the stone floating. Arn documented his process in creating this design, from stock billet to forming and patterning, to setting the stone and finishing the ring.

This ring also features one of Arn's signature patterns, Guri Bori, inspired by the natural landforms and topography of the western US. The added thickness needed for this style of setting really helps to create that mountainous look!

 

  

 

See a video of the completed ring here!

Read more