In October 2000, Michael Parrish and Daniel Jenkins, Northern California goldsmiths who have been business partners for years, founded the Michael Daniels Collection.

They had long admired the mix of precious metals known as Mokume Gane, and sought ways to create this beautiful, dramatic–and difficult–material. And when they realized they could develop the tools and skills to make it, they gave up their successful ten-year custom-jewelry business, and started a new company, just for Mokume.

Mokume gane (moh’-coo-may gah’-neh) is the ancient Japanese art of fusing layers of precious metals to form a single piece with unique markings that can be formed into fine jewelry (Mokume in Japanese means wood-grain; gane means metal).  

M•D goldsmiths have developed a proprietary combination of heat, pressure, forging, and carving to produce the bold M•D patterns. Their process of solid-state diffusion bonding starts with making their own alloys, including the 18K golds, as well as the dark and light contrast layers. This gives them a stable billet (working block) with crisp, clear layers of the different metals, and provides fine control of color balances. It also helps prevent melting during bonding, and delamination later.