Designed by a Japanese contemporary artist Kaori Tazoe, Small Factory Ring offers a unique threaded system of making your own perfect ring by combining a Base Ring with ornamental Heads of your choice.
Inspired by the precise metal cutting technique of some specialised, small-scale metal processing factories in Tokyo, Tazoe designed a new line of jewellery, where an ornamental Head part can be attached to a Base Ring by screwing it on. This allows for unlimited customisation, as the Head can be replaced with other Heads depending on your mood or occasion.
Small Factory Ring is for all genders, therefore the standard Base Rings (in bare messing and black) come in a wide range of nine sizes.
Since its beginning in 2014, Small Factory Ring has been introducing new designs regularly, and now the collection includes pearl, jade, lapis lazuli, and also an earring attachment part.
Tazoe also develops other jewellery projects under the name of TAZOE.
Based in Yokohama, Japan, Kaori Tazoe’s artistic practice ranges from photography, installation art, and the founding of the first artist-run space in Yokohama called Scratch Tile, to designing jewellery.
She has exhibited among others at Yokohama Triennale / Yokohama, Location One Gallery / NYC, and Yokohama Civic Gallery Azamino / Yokohama.
Tazoe collaborates with several metal processing factories in and around Ota-ku, Tokyo. Being a supplier of parts for precision machines such as medical equipment and inspection machines, Yazawa Manufacturing is the key factory where most parts are manufactured.
Also collaborating are INB Ltd., which processes sandblasted surfaces on Sandblasted Heads, Sanwa Precision Machinery Manufacturing, which specially cuts elegant knurling patterns on stainless steel rings, Doi Pearl Co. Ltd., which provides Akoya pearls, and Hitachi Springs, which bends Stainless steel Boxes with beautiful feather finish.
Because Small Factory Ring's metal parts are mainly cut and scraped by lathe machinery, you can see some fine grooves on the surface of rings and some heads, which the designer intentionally leaves to achieve the industrial look.
