Ancient Kauri wood ring with a black wood band

Ancient Kauri wood.

One new story and one very old story.

A lovely couple from Ohio contacted us a few months ago and asked if David would make them rings of Kauri wood. The couple specially ordered the wood from ancientwood.com and had the wood shipped directly to David.

The ring you see here is David's first kauri wood ring; his test ring.

Dusty and Erin's rings will be kauri wood with bird's eye maple liners.

Now for the old story. This Touch Wood Ring is crafted from reclaimed ancient Kauri timber that is aged from 30,ooo to more than 50,ooo years old. Ancient Kauri wood comes from forests buried at the time of the last Ice Age, which are located on the Northern Island of New Zealand. It is called the World's Oldest workable timber. Read The Kauri Story on the Ancientwood website. These points are from their pamphlet.

• The harvesting of Ancient Kauri is a very ecologically friendly practice.
• No standing trees are cut
• These incredible trees are excavated from underground and any disturbed land is carefully restored.
• Every tree grew for more than 1200 years.
• They stopped growing over 50,000 years ago.

This ancient Kauri wood is pretty spectacular stuff and it fills us with a sense of wonder to hold something so very very old.

Bespoke Wooden rings
meticulously hand crafted
in Canada
by David Finch.

Touch Wood Rings

Italian Olive Wood Rings

David just finished these rings incorporating olive wood sent to us by a couple who live in Ithaca, New York.

Katherine's ring is blue spruce and incorporates their olive wood as an inlaid band. Nate's ring is solid olive wood.

When Nathaniel first made contact with us he told us about his cousin's family in Italy who own a small farm with olive and fruit trees. "This farm is a special place for me. What's more, Katherine and I will be spending a portion of our honeymoon there." So with some serious effort on the part of Nate and his cousin d'Angio; a branch of an Italian olive tree has been transformed by David into Katherine and Nathaniel's Italian Olive wood wedding rings.

Dear Nicola and David,
The rings arrived and we couldn't be more pleased. They fit perfectly and are exactly what we wanted. Thank you both so much for your efforts. And thank you for providing such a beautiful alternative to traditional wedding rings. We just can't say enough good things...
Thank you.
Best wishes,
Katherine and Nathaniel

Koa wood rings with juniper heartwood and birds eye maple

This beautiful set of rings was designed by a young couple who work in the Peace Corps.

They are made of Koa wood, juniper heartwood and birds eye maple. Katie's wedding and engagement rings are a split design of Brian's wedding ring.

Stackable wood rings ~ just for fun

I thought I'd share a glimpse of my collection of tiny rings but please know that these really are 'just for fun'. They are very narrow (2mm wide) and David does not recommend a ring this narrow for regular wear.

David has made about 10 of these very narrow rings for me! I wear them in stacks of three and I just love to mix and match them. Depending on which 3 I wear, they can look like a solid ring when worn.

I especially like to use two black wood rings as borders for a center ring of koa or blue spruce or juniper heartwood. Some of these tiny stacking rings are lined, some are one solid wood. These have all seen lots of wear :)

An alternative to traditional wedding rings

When Brenda first wrote she thanked us for having this alternative to the traditional wedding ring. She said she'd known she wanted wood wedding rings for a long time. These beautiful blackwood and blue spruce rings will be winding their way to Jamaica in a few months.

She wrote "We love our rings... Everyone we've shown is very impressed as well. Not only by the beauty, but also by the idea of a wooden ring instead of metal. We'll keep in touch and send pictures of the wedding! My expectations have far been exceeded!
Thank you both so much!"

And you are both so welcome Brenda. It's been our pleasure!

Hawaiian Koa wood ring with an oak band.

"Just got back from the UK to find the ring here waiting for me, thank you so much it looks stunning! She’ll be thrilled with it. Thank you again for all your hard work and kind emails."

This pretty ring now lives in New York City. It was lovingly designed using a dark Hawaiian koa wood and a grainy oak inlaid band. It's a size 5 1/2, 4mm wide and gently rounded.

Wooden rings with two hearts

This Michigan couple designed their Touch Wood Rings to be made of juniper heart wood, with purple heart wood liners and narrow golden koa inlaid bands.

Their rings are 5 and 7mm wide with slight tapers.

In just a few days these folks will be married.

We'll be thinking of you and sending our love!

Rosewood friends

Often our conversations with people start months before the work actually begins and so it's always gratifying to hear back from folks after our work is done. I get pretty attached to folks while chatting with them over a period of months and David develops a special relationship with people through making their rings. Dani and Schmick have been in our lives for awhile ~ another couple of wonderful people whose kindness humbles us and whose friendship we value.

Upon receiving their rings, Dani wrote ~ "I was wondering how you would package our rings and I was very pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful card they were in. The rings are absolutely beautiful. They feel and look very elegant on our fingers. It's kinda funny but, in the pictures you don't get a sense of how delicate they actually are and I can't imagine the skill, care, and patience it must take to make them. They are perfect.

Since we both make a living with our hands, we are having a friend weave hemp necklaces for us to put the rings on while we are at work so now we are searching for some nice wood beads to put in the necklace. We would like to thank you, not only for all your time, effort and love that you put into this process, but also for being the beautiful people you are and for providing people with such a fantastic way to symbolize their commitment and love.

Words cannot express how much I have enjoyed this process starting from the moment I found your website and instantly knew I was in the right place. You will always be in our hearts."

Juniper heart wood rings for another lovely Canadian couple

When Caroline and Loch designed their Touch Wood Rings they described what they liked about the juniper heartwood;

“We love the grain of the juniper heartwood and its varied colours. We would prefer not to have the grain only parallel (horizontal) all of the way around the ring (though we don't mind that for a bit if that is the way the wood goes) or too vertical. We like the natural flowing lines of the grain.”

Here are the rings David made for them. They are lined with birds eye maple and inscribed.


Caroline writes: “ The rings are absolutely gorgeous. They are exactly what we were hoping :) They are absolutely stunning and fit perfectly. Also - we love how you featured the grain of the wood. Thank you so much - we love them.”

Wooden rings designed by a Canadian couple

Lianne and Stu first made contact with us last summer. They designed their rings incorporating two striking woods. Their rings are made of Grenadilla with wide dark koa wood bands and koa wood liners.

Here is what Lianne wrote to us the other day.

"Hi Nicola and David,
We got our rings yesterday, and we LOVE THEM!!! They are stunning. I knew they would be lovely from the photos, but as happy customers on your site say, the photos do not do the rings justice! Stu and I agreed not to try them on at the same time, until we are married ;) but we eagerly took turns trying our lovely rings on as we sat on the couch, by the fireplace. They also fit perfectly, so thank you for all the love and hard work that went into making them perfect!! We will definitely send you some photos from the wedding!
take care, Lianne "

David and I look forward to those wedding photos and as always we are so grateful to all the lovely folks who, like Lianne and Stu, wander into our lives and let us share in their joy.