the rings

we have a design!!! our extremely gifted friend valerie has designed the rings from something i said months ago in passing, about including rocks from the buffalo river somehow. i really almost cried last night when she sketched her ideas. i have been procrastinating everything wedding in my usual fashion, so it was so heartwarming and serendipitous to have completely given over all design control (something i have a hard time doing) and have her present to me something that is so unique and wonderful and yet still so simple and us. we are going to have matching bands out of the japenese metal-working process mokume-gane--which creates a swirly, layered, wave-like visual effect. the she has designed a three stone (river rocks,really!) smaller band that i can stack with it. (some of my loved ones are collecting the rocks for me this weekend.) it is so symbolically perfect for a commitment ring, how we are interconnected and woven while keeping at our core always our own elements and characteristics. i love the fluid lines, the image of flowing water, the buddhist associations with changing and evolving and familiar repetition, all on a circular band reminding us that we are in this crazy process of loving and learning and awaking together. we are so honored and unbelievably blessed!!

the picture is an example of the sheets of the mokume gane. i am not sure what ours will look like, though probably predominately silver. i also added a picture of rings created from this process, yet i doubt ours will look anything like this. i can only imagine, every ring that is made from the process is completely unique and random. and again, ours will be mainly silver unlike the ones above which appear to have no silver in the mix at all.