OUR STORY
THE MAKER
Gabi gained a HND in Jewellery and Silversmithing from Birmingham City University, studying the course at the prestigious School of Jewellery, right in the heart of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Coming from a family with a history of design, he wished to follow in their footsteps. After trying several areas of design, he came across jewellery design and quickly found a passion for it.
As he started the course at the University, he discovered the process of Mokume Gane. As he learned more about it, he became increasingly interested in how the patterns were formed. He started to experiment, and, while the first attempts were disasters, learned from each mistake, increasing his understanding of how Mokume was created. He started incorporating it into his University work, where he created his first range. He then studied the BA Design for Industry course, learning about modern techniques and technologies in the industry, and how they could be incorporated into the jewellery world.
After graduating, he set up his workshop in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter, where he continues to creates designs in the technique of Mokume Gane.
THE BRAND
Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic style focused on transience and imperfection, and characteristics of wabi sabi include asymmetry, roughness and simplicity.
The definition for Wabi loosely relates to things that are fresh and new, simplistic and have a rustic beauty to them. It can either be created by nature, or by man. It also refers to things that change appearance due to an accidental or coincidental element, which creates elegance, beauty and uniqueness to the piece, such as the accidental mark of a hammer, a slip of a burr cutter, or an extra slide of buff paper.
Gabi decided to name his brand after this concept as he felt it defined his work; his designs have a simplistic, rustic beauty to them, letting the beauty of the mokume pattern speak for itself. Also, due to the nature of mokume gane, every stroke of a file, every beat of a hammer, changes the pattern to create something completely different, making each piece of jewellery unique to itself.