David Hill Designs

Rings and pendants made from exotic metals

I make lathe-turned wedding bands, rings and pendants from exotic metals including timascus, a pattern-welded blend of titanium alloys. This remarkable metal produces vibrant colour and texture patterns when anodised (oxidised). Oxidation is achieved by heating or electro-anodising, sometimes both. I enjoy the alchemy of teasing new textures and colour combinations from this remarkable material.
My model engineering experience has given me an obsession with attractive fit and finish on metal. This has transferred well to jewellery making because it involves similar skills like turning, shaping, lapping, polishing, heat treating and anodising. It also gave me a fully-equipped metal workshop which helped to reduce the initial investment!
The ring making started when I made a pair of companionship rings for me and a female friend. I found myself using my lathe and other workshop tools for a new purpose, but finding a similar pleasure in it. Those rings were made out of etched stainless steel Damascus, an attractive patterned jewellery steel made in Sweden. I started making one-off rings and pendants and selling them locally.
The next milestone was discovering titanium Damascus.
Timascus, like Japanese mokume-gane, is a decorative metal laminate that gives wood grain-like effects in metal. It is hand forged by welding together multiple layers of different titanium alloys at high temperature in an inert gas, then forging the hot billet to create patterns that run through the material like the writing in a stick of rock. The stick is twisted and pounded at the forge to produce a richly patterned metal laminate.
After buying a piece of timascus out of curiosity, I became fascinated with the colours and patterns that are possible when it is carefully shaped, polished, etched and anodised. This led to the discovery of other versions of titanium Damascus including zirconium/titanium (known as zircuti), and the variety of patterns they are made in.
I buy timascus and other exotic pattern-welded metal laminates from a few dedicated forges around the world who produce them in small quantities. The craft lies in shaping and treating it to produce attractive patterns and colours. The nature of this material ensures that no two pieces can be exactly alike.
That means that each piece I sell is guaranteed to be unique, with subtly different patterning and colouring. I have seen some demand for pairs of wedding bands (or companionship rings) made from timascus or zircuti. That might be because the two rings are are different shapes and sizes, but cut from the same material. A fitting metaphor for a marriage, perhaps?