Andrew Seginovich’s Milestones Ring

By Tina Snyder

Andrew Seginovich
Koan Jewelry
Odessa, Ukraine

In an effort to capture life’s milestones, Andrew Seginovich of Koan Jewelry in Odessa, Ukraine, painstakingly crafted this titanium mokumé gane ring with 14k gold accents. “The design of the ring reflects life’s many crossroads and choices, while the 14k gold points represent the precious milestones we hit throughout our lives,” says Seginovich.

To make the beautifully patterned mokumé gane, Seginovich started by stacking 40 sheets of two grades of clean and flat titanium. He heated the stack with argon gas to a low orange range and then placed it in a high-pressure press. The resulting multilayer billet could then be worked the same as a solid piece of metal.

To create the unique pattern for this piece, Seginovich cut the billet into 36 parallelepipeds (three-dimensional parallelograms) of the same size, stacking them in a mosaic fashion that would result in a crisscross pattern. He repeated the fusing process, which resulted in a 4 cm by 4 cm by 9 cm billet.

Using a 2.5 mm slice of the billet, he cut out a circle and punched it with doming punches on a dapping block with various half-sphere holes.

“This enabled me to make a semisphere out of the flat circular piece of titanium mokumé,” he says. “This process is only possible when the metal is hot, so you need to heat it and make three or four punches before it gets cold.”

He then drilled a hole in the center of the semisphere to begin the procedure of opening the dome into a ring. “This requires patience and accuracy because working the piece cold, it could crack at any moment and all my previous work would go in a trash bin,” he says.

The process of opening up the shape into a ring is done using a hammer, mandrel, and anvil. He then turns to the dapping block and punches again to give the ring the correct size and geometry.

“The forging process is the most thrilling and risky—especially working with mosaic titanium mokumé,” Seginovich admits. “The bonds between the layers are not as stable as in ordinary layered billet while forging, because it is hit along and across the layers, which results in big tension. You only have a few seconds per step in metal forming until you have to heat it again and repeat.”

Once the main shape of the ring is formed to the correct size, Seginovich moves to the carving process with burs and cutters. “The ring is supposed to resemble fabric, so I had to carve metal the same way as if the threads are intertwined,” he explains. At the same time, he drills small holes where the 14k gold “milestone” drops will be placed. They are attached by 3 mm pins pressed along the band.

The final step is polishing and oxidizing the titanium with heat for 3 to 5 minutes to bring out its vibrant colors.

“I love fire oxidation because it provides vibrant results, but it requires your full attention and control to heat a piece evenly and stop at the right time, since the colors of the titanium change depending on the temperature and duration of heating.”

The resulting ring’s pattern and texture exemplifies life’s crossroads, peppered with the precious moments that inspire new achievements, visions, and insights.