America's Greatest Pastime turned into a Wood Ring

There is a lot of different kind of woods out there. And we have such a huge selection to choose from in our shop. But some of the greatest rings that we've made have come from wood given to us by our customers. Even better, when the wood has a cool story to go with it.

Recently we had someone ask us if we could make a ring using a Louisville Slugger bat! Of course, our answer was an enthusiastic "YES"

But we didn't stop there, we also made cuff links and a really cool ring box to keep it all in. I think the cuff links are really a unique touch! Who would have thought, cuff links made from an old baseball bat!

Our favorite part, however, was using that big Louisville Slugger logo for the box. It just seemed to work out so perfectly that the bat made such a cool box to hold the ring and the cuff links.

We are proud to show this set off, check out the rest of the photo's!

Norm Sartorius and Recycled Wood

Last week we had a really fun customer come by our studio in Chicago. We were walking around the shop, and looking at all the different woods we have, and we started looking at this box of just little scrap pieces of wood. Each piece we pulled out of the box was more exciting than the last. We eventually found the right piece of wood for him, you'll see his ring below. But we wanted to share these cool pieces of wood with you!

We are so thrilled anytime anyone donates wood to our shop. It means so much to us to have so many unique and beautiful types of wood. One of the many people who has given us scrap pieces of wood is the great artist, Norm Sartories! He creates, "non-functional wooden spoons" and instead of wasting the pieces he has left over, he like to send them to us and others like us.

Gustav met with Sartorius at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Craft show a few years back and they hit it off. He sends us a few pieces every so often, and we are honored to use the pieces that Sartorius has provided us with. We hope that you see a few pieces you might like to use in your recycled Norm Sartorius wood ring. We are happy to share them with all of you out there!

If you want to read more about Sartorius, we would love for you to visit his website with the following link: http://www.normsartorius.com/index.html

His and Hers

In these rings we incorporated customer provided Mulberry wood and Cedar from Lebanon! The grandfather of the customer planted a mulberry tree when he was born in Lebanon. The grandfather had always been a great inspiration because of his great perseverance and determination so it was a very special opportunity to incorporate wood from a tree that had grown with him since birth.

His: Cedar Liner with Rosewood, Inlays of mulberry wood, Padauk and Lapis lazuli. 
Hers: Cedar liner with Rosewood, Inlays of mulberry wood and Mother of Pearl and Sapphire set in white gold.