andrew nyce designs

Something New: The Meridian Collection

Meridian Collection of Damascus Steel and Mokume Gane rings

[left to right, Damascus Meridian with hand-textured inlaid band, Damascus Meridian Ultra, Mokume Meridian]

Andrew Nyce Designs formally introduces our Meridian Collection of Mokume Gane and Damascus Stainless Steel wedding, anniversary, and commitment rings. The defining feature of this Collection is an inlaid band of gold, platinum or palladium alloy that encircles the surface of the ring. This precious metal meridian neatly bisects the distinctive Mokume Gane and Damascus Steel patterns. Meridian rings were inspired by our JET Racer Damascus Men’s line.

A meridian is an imaginary arc on the Earth’s surface connecting the North and South geographic poles. All locations along the same meridian have the same longitude. A meridian also can be defined as pathways through the body along which vital energy circulates. Both of these definitions speak to the concept of connectedness, whether it is between locations separated by vast distances on the Earth, within our own bodies, or on the surface of a ring. The Meridian Collection takes this concept of connectedness and wraps it around your finger.

In making a Meridian ring, the starting point is a plain Damascus Steel or Mokume Gane band. A narrow channel is formed along the centerline of the band using either hand tools or a mini lathe. Then, a precious metal alloy square wire is fitted into to the channel and soldered in place.

There are two styles available for Damascus rings: Meridian and Meridian Ultra. The standard Damascus Meridian ring has an inlaid band that is proportional to the overall width of the ring. Meridian Ultra has a narrower inlaid band compared to the standard Meridian style. Only Damascus Meridian rings have the option of a hand-textured inlaid band. There is one style available for Meridian Mokume Gane rings.

New Kaleidoscope Pattern Mokume Rings

Moonlight Kaleidoscope Mokume Gane

Andrew Nyce Designs has added another new patterned Mokume Gane to its line-up. In addition to twist-patterned, Contour (random), and Banded rings, Andrew Nyce Designs has developed a distinctive patterning technique, called Kaleidoscope patterning, for our Mokume Gane wedding, commitment, engagement and fashion rings.

The first Mokume being offered with this patterning is Moonlight Kaleidoscope. Moonlight Kaleidoscope, which is composed of 14K palladium white gold and platinum-enhanced sterling silver, can be ordered for rings in any of the Andrew Nyce Designs Collections, including Essentials, Embraced, Engagement, Meridian and Wedding Sets. Shown above (top to bottom) are an Embraced and Essentials Mokume ring with Moonlight Kaleidoscope.

The pattern is reminiscent of an old fashioned Kaleidoscope. In the case of Moonlight Kaleidoscope, the gray and light relates to the shadows and light we often see on the surface of the moon. A variation on this process would involve combining some of our existing Mokume color palettes such as Glacial Mist and Santa Fe. By doing so, not only will the pattern be different, but colors will be introduced into various areas of the pattern.

Jewelry Studio Notes (a technical discussion of Andrew’s work on Kaleidoscope patterning)

The origins of the Kaleidoscope pattern can be traced to our new Damascus patterns, Art Deco and Woodcut. In the Damascus process, stainless steel is stacked in specific configurations. For the Kaleidoscope patterning, precious metal alloys are stacked in essentially the same manner as for the new Damascus patterns.

“I use the TEMTP bonding system, which was developed jointly by Stewart Grice of Hoover and Strong, James Binnion of Binnion Metal Arts and myself, when making Mokume billets. Using this system, I am able to alternate parallel layers of various precious metal alloys with vertical slices from a previously bonded billet of the same alloys. This stacked assembly of alloys is bonded, forged and rolled, and then, sliced, twisted and rolled into a square rod; exactly the same procedure as when making a twist-patterned Mokume billet.”

“The square rod is patterned in the same way as for a twist-patterned billet. However, I am cutting into both the parallel layers as well as the vertical layers. Thus, the Kaleidoscope pattern shows the narrow parallel layers along with the wider layers of the vertical layers. The vertical layers become wider during the forging and rolling steps due to their orientation.”

For future iterations of the Kaleidoscope pattern, we will use different alloys depending upon the color and pattern trying to be achieved.