The Mokume Gane technique was developed in 17^th century Japan, following the example of the layered metal technique found in the “katana” Samurai’s sword. The technique allows forging a metal that looks actually like wood. The literal meaning of Mokume Gane is “Metal that looks like knots in wood”.

The production of Mokume is a long process that requires concentration and exactness. The example that appears in the photograph is the fusion of silver and copper metals. One has to perfectly wash and polish the metal plaques in order to prevent gaps and oxidization in the heating process.

The metal plaques are pressed together between two thick steel plates and then the entire apparatus is put into a high temperature furnace. Due to the fact that the metals are placed under extreme pressure, they heat up and eventually merge. This process is known as diffusion. This requires great concentration on the part of the artist because the most effective way to identify the moment of fusion is observing the shades of red and orange produced by the molded hot metal. The premature arrest of the process will prevent the merging of the metals where as stopping the process too late will cause the melting of the metals, and therefore the destruction of the Mokume.

After the billet of the Mokume is ready, the process of creating of the textures begins. Creating indentations in the metal and rolling it out creates the effect of knots and wood grain. We must continually re-enact this process, until we receive the desired texture. The use of different metals obviously creates different shades. The most common metals used in traditional Mokume are silver, copper, Shakudu (a combination of gold and copper), and Washiboishi, (a combination of silver and copper).

 The use of The Mokume allows me as an artist to master the production of the material itself, and not just the usual process of working with prepared metals as in ordinary silver and gold crafting.

Each Mokume jewel is my own exclusive and unique creation that is entirely hand made by me. The process of creating the Mokume entails “intention” - a kabbalistic concept that means concentration of consciousness. It also entails “Samadhi”, a term from Yogic philosophy, meaning the ability to change and create objects on the physical plane by focusing our awareness.

The Mokume rings are widely used as wedding rings, because of the symbolism reflected in the unification of the different metals, expressed in the merging of the two metals into one integrated texture that is simply breathtaking in its harmonious beauty.

This ring will join my collection of jewelry inspired by the book “Dune” by Frank Herbert.
The book “Dune” contains many known alchemical symbols such as the Ouroboros. The plot spreads over a time of tens of thousands of years and shows the cyclicality of the universe. The author, Frank Herbert, tried to deal with the essence of existence and creation.

One of the books deals with a character that lives for thousands of years and posses the ability to see the past and the future. This is actually a situation that most mystics try to achieve – be one with god and see everything. This actually contradicts the essence of the creation. If we know everything there is no point in living. The essence is in experiencing things.
Years after this character dies, a big empty structure is found in excavations and on one of its walls they find engraved in stone the Hebrew word “ARAFEL” meaning “mist”. That character couldn’t live anymore with all his knowledge of the past and the future, of everything. He wanted to be in a “mist”, not to know everything so that he will be able to be a part of the cosmic experience and that is the purpose of creation.

Hello everyone,

I’m very happy to let you know that my new Russian website is up! All the articles, models and explanations now available in Russian in addition to the long time running English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Hebrew sites.

Наслаждайтесь!
David

Ka gold jewelry in Russian

Another new design I’m working on is a ring with my own version of the philosopher Descartes’ famous saying “I think, therefore I am”. This saying, originally stated in French, is mostly known in its Latin version: “Cogito, ergo sum”. My version is “I love, therefore I am” which will be inscribed in Latin on the ring (around the stone).

Here are some photos of the creation of the ring..

I’m currently working on about 10 completely new designs based on new ideas.
The first one I would like to tell you about is the I CHING pendant.
The I CHING (literally meaning “the classic of changes” or “the book of changes”) is one of the most ancient Chinese texts. It is actually a method meant to freeze a moment in time and look at it from different perspectives.
The ideas in the basis of this philosophy are that everything comes from the one that had divided himself creating two opposite powers. This contrast created a constant motion aspiring for balance – and this movement is life itself.  The many different combinations in the I CHING text are divided into Yin and Yang which represent the positive and negative forces and they can be converted to binary combinations of 0 and 1.
This symbol was also used as the symbol of The Dharma Initiative from the famous TV series “Lost”.
As you can see the pendant is still at work but I promise to have more photos for you once it’s done.

The design of these earrings is inspired by ancient jewelry and the use of gold thread weaving in the east. The gemstones are Tsavorite Garnet and they have a unique brilliant green color.

I made the Palm tree earrings originally for my mother but decided to make them available for others as well…

In about a week there will be new designs I made available on the website.You already had a sneak peak at the models that won the previous contests and at the Star of David mandala and the Key of Elijah. This one is the Egyptian Lotus flower ring and I would love to get your comments on it! 

The Lotus flower is a symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth, because at night the flower closes and sinks underwater, and at dawn it rises and opens again. According to one creation myth, it was a giant lotus which first rose out of the watery chaos in the beginning of time.

In the East, the Lotus flower is viewed as a symbol of spiritual enfoldment. The lotus has its roots in earthly mud, but as it grows upward in aspiration toward the light, its petals open out into a beautiful flower. Om Mani Padme Hum, meaning, “Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus” is the sacred mantra of the Tibetans.

Untouched by the impurity, lotus symbolizes the purity of heart and mind. The lotus flower represents long life, health, honor and good luck.

The Egyptian Lotus flower symbol that appears on the ring, was called Sesen in the Egyptian language.

A Mandala is an Asian religious decoration made with geometrical elements. In Tibet, monks make very complex and beautiful mandalas from colored sand. They work on them for weeks and sweep them off to show the impermanence of all things in life and that there is no importance in getting attached to things.

The Star of David appears in the Asian cultures as part of the Sacred Geometry. This pendant is based on a Tibetan Mandala that I have seen and has the Star of David in its center.

This pendant was designed by Joe Zastrow who won David’s jewelry design contest of February-March 2007. It contains one of the methods to sketch the Golden Mean of Phi (1.618….). It also contains (on top) the Greek letter Phi, representing the divine proportion.
Phi is a constant value which is even more mysterious and profound in its implications than pi (3.14…). Like pi, phi is a number with no arithmetical solution - The decimals just keep on going into infinity without ever repeating themselves. The unique thing about this number is that it can be found incorporated in all known organic structures: From the bone structure of human beings; through the seed pattern of a sunflower; to the spiral of a sea shell, the phi proportion is there, underlying all biological structures, seeming to be a geometrical blueprint for life itself.  Plato went so far as to call the phi ratio the “key to the physics of the cosmos”.
 

This pendant is inspired by the story of the prophet Elijah in the book of Kings. There it tells of Elijah proposing a test to show that the Hebrew G-d is the real and only god and that the Baal is a false god. He competes alone against 450 Baal prophets. They build an altar, make a sacrifice, pray and cut themselves but their god doesn’t answer and Elijah ridicules at them.

At this point, he sends out for 12 rocks and 4 barrels of water. He builds an altar for G-d from the 12 rocks and digs a drench around it. He commands filling the drench with water from the barrels and repeating it 3 times (3×4=12). He then asks G-d to accept the sacrifice. At that moment a fire came from the sky and ignited the sacrifice. All the people who witnessed this event immediately re-accepted G-d as the only one and true and the Baal prophets were put to death. 
 
In the pendant you can see 4 triangles with 12 vertexes and in the middle is created a perfect square. In the story of Elijah we have 12 stones and 12 barrels of water - 12×12=144 which is the twelfth number in the Fibonacci series, which enfolds the secrets to the order of the universe.
 
The letter in the middle is a version of the Hebrew letter SHIN which usually has only 3 arms but legends say the when redemption comes this letter will have 4 arms as shown in the pendant. The Hebrew engraving on the parameter of the pendant is the story from the book of Kings.