Black Palm. A beautiful and distinctive wood that is brown/black in color with a toothpick-like series of brown, black and white streaks running along the grain. On end, the grain is solid 'eyes' in a very compressed pattern. Our ebony is sourced responsibly from Southeast Asia, but also from other parts of the world. We resin-stabilize our black palm for durability over time.
Koftgari is the name for fine gold (and/or silver) patterns inlayed into parkerized steel. This ancient Indian technique, done entirely by hand, involves creating a very fine cross-hatch grid in the steel and then burnishing 24K gold (and/or silver) into a pattern that is bound by the cross-hatch. Parkerizing involves soaking the steel in a boiling solution of salts to oxidize the steel a deep brown/blue. Beautiful and timeless, koftgari is nearly a lost art.
William Henry's koftgari comes from 2 small villages in India, home of the very few Indian artisans that still master this technique.
Smoky quartz is a grey, translucent variety of quartz. It ranges in clarity from almost complete transparency to a brownish-gray crystal that is almost opaque.
Smoky Quartz was known as a Stone of Power. To the ancient Druids, it was sacred and signified the potent dark power of Earth gods and goddesses.