Something Old

Vanessa deBruijn

An ancient Japanese metal-smithing technique is skillfully incorporated into a smooth, modern rose gold-and-silver wedding band

In a small studio in the heart of downtown Madison, a soft-spoken woman from Japan creates wedding bands that are anything but ordinary. Her studio is filled with unusual artifacts and unique pieces, and her simple cases display hand-made creations that are influenced by both her past and her present.

Originally trained in both graphic design and architecture, Hiroko Yamada now looks at jewelry design as a smaller-scale version of the designs she used to create for buildings in major cities around the world. After living, studying and working in Japan, Yamada set her sights on the U.S. – pursuing a master of fine arts degree at UW-Madison and exploring the university's excellent metal-working program.

While getting her degree, Yamada settled into a part-time job at locally owned Burnie’s Rock Shop, a unique jewelry store and haven for lovers of unusual stones and specimens. It was there that she began to learn about the art of jewelry making and there that she found the sponsors she needed to stay in the country and eventually get her citizenship.

"At school we learned the artistic, but then when you start working at a jeweler’s you have to sit down and learn how to set stones," she said. "I guess I had the basic skills, but I didn’t have a real knowledge of designing."

It didn't take long for Yamada to pick up the art of designing custom jewelry. Having watched her grandparents who dabbled in restorative work of ancient Japanese metalwork, Yamada was familiar with a style that she began to incorporate with modern design to create a unique look that was tied to her past. People started to come to Yamada with special requests for custom jewelry designs and, in particular, for wedding bands and engagement rings.

"They are sometimes picking up their own stones and telling me to design around the stones, and some people even give me poetry and say, 'Can you design something from this?' It’s really very interesting," she said.

Another common request for Yamada is to incorporate some kind of family heirloom or a sentimental object into a ring setting. She has worked with buttons and pieces of glass, mothers’ pearls and even paintings that represent something special to a customer. Although the requests are sometimes challenging, Yamada always promises to at least try.

Because she makes everything by hand, it isn’t unusual for Yamada to spend several days making one ring. After sitting down with the customer, she will create a mold out of wax and make several prototypes to show the progression of the ring.

"When they see the metal it’s really ugly, it’s not shiny and it’s black," she said. “But then I explain how it works, and in the end, when it’s nice and shiny, they get excited. So far every single ring I’ve made is different, none of them are the same."

The rings on display in the small glass cases in her shop are largely made out of lightweight but durable materials like titanium and rose gold. Many of her creations are two-toned and use intricate metal patterns like braiding – a process that Yamada insists must be done by hand. Again returning to her Japanese roots, Yamada has managed to incorporate an ancient metalworking technique called Mokume-gane (pronounced Moku-may-ganay) into her ring designs, providing a wood-grain texture that looks a bit like a swirled marble cake running along the middle section of the ring.

As Yamada walks around her shop and enthusiastically points out the unique pieces from artists all over the world, it is evident that she not only has a flair for creating one-of-a kind pieces to make wedding memories last forever, but that it is also her life and her livelihood.