Japanese inlay (zougan)

Japanese style inlay (zougan) is a way to combine different metals and make patterns without any solder or heat. It can be used for a variety of metalwork, including jewelry, but one of the most traditional examples would be for the samurai sword guard (tsuba).

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To advance to artwork for sword guards, we first need to practice! When you learn Japanese inlay at Blue Dove, you will start with inlay of fine silver into brass. Because brass is harder than fine silver, this is a good and easy combination to start with.

You can learn several different inlay techniques, such as wire inlay (inserting metal wire) and surface inlay (covering a bigger area by inserting a metal plate).

Below you can see an example of a practice piece I made for my first attempt. Merry Christmas everyone!

彫金教室 DOVE Academy of Jewelry Arts https://www.dovetokyo.com/