About Us And Our Items
Who are we?
We are Satoko`s (Sa-toh-koh) Origami Jewellery, a company making jewellery pieces incorporating the Japanese art of Origami. Satoko was born and raised in the small Japanese seaside town of Nadachi where she learned the art of origami as a child and currently lives in England with her husband. Origami is an ancient art form practiced widely in Japan, and indeed all over the world, and quite literally means `paper folding`.
Satoko`s Origami Jewellery was started in response to the positive comments she received when people saw her miniature origami designs that she had initially created as a hobby and the realization that the designs could be made small enough to be worn as unique items of jewellery. A considerable amount of effort and skill goes into the making of each piece of jewellery and we hope that the prices and ranges of the items, whilst reflecting quality and worksmanship, are affordable to all.
Our Origami Paper Items
We offer items of Jewellery incorporating a variety of origami designs. Our products are made with sterling silver hooks and chain and, where we choose to use crystals, we use only Swarovski Crystals purchased from reputable high street stockists.
The Folding Process
All our items are indiviually hand-folded by Satoko using Japanese origami paper. Satoko uses only her hands to fold the paper into these small and intricate designs.
The Lacquering Process
All our items are hand coated with a mixture of air and UV cured crystal lacquers, imported from a Japanese company specialising in these materials, to give an attractive and durable water-resistant finish. We have avoided using resins with our products, prefering instead to choose water based materials.
Our Pure Silver Items
As a contemporary alternative to the more traditional paper designs we offer unique items of jewellery hand folded from polymer metal clay.
The Folding Process
As with our paper items our polymer metal clay items are hand folded by Satoko using paper thin sheets of polymer metal clay.
The Firing Process
Once the polymer metal clay has been folded into the required shape the piece is fired by blowtorch, which allows the item to be be reshaped as it is being fired, to minimise small distortion that occur in the material at such high temperatures. The item is allowed to cool and a pure silver piece of hand-folded origami remains.
The Burnishing Process
After the pure silver pieces have been fired each one is carefully hand burnished using a variety of burnishing tools. The final piece is then polished, also by hand, to give it an attractive high quality finish.
A Tiny Handfolded Crane made by Satoko with her bare hands.
