Carbon Fiber and Silver Rings, Made to Order

STRUGA makes carbon fiber and silver rings only to order. There is no ready-made carbon ring in the catalog; each one is designed for a single person. The carbon comes from the brand's own line — six palettes of multi-layered matte sheet, cut on a CNC machine. The silver is 925 sterling. Once the sketch is approved, the ring takes 2–4 weeks, often less.

For the international market, STRUGA objects are made in Bali, where silversmiths work the silver by hand. Finished catalog pieces show what the combination looks like: the Signature Cross V.3 pendant lays a cast element of 925 silver across a carbon body. A piece like this is the easiest way to explain in a brief what you want from a ring.

Why carbon and silver

STRUGA itself began with carbon: the brand's first tests and first pieces were carbon pendants with inserts of copper, brass, steel and meteorite. That early work grew into the MOSAIC family, where one material is set into another and joined with a third in a single plane. A carbon and silver ring follows the same principle at the scale of a finger.

The pair works because the two materials age differently. STRUGA silver is Living Silver by default — 925 left without rhodium plating. It darkens from air and skin: friction lightens the raised edges, and the recesses go dark. The cause is sulfur gases in the air, which form silver sulfide on the surface (Susan Bradley's 2005 study). The carbon beside it stays as it was on the first day.

Which silver, and how it joins the carbon

In a ring made to order, the silver is 925 sterling: 925 parts silver per 1,000, the rest copper. This matters because not every pale insert in carbon is silver. In ready-made CARBON pieces, the pale insert is a silver-plated jewellery alloy — not silver, and not 925. Some of those pieces carry 925 silver as well; each product page lists what the piece is made of.

Carbon and silver can be joined in more than one way, and the catalog shows three. On the Signature Cross V.3, a cast silver wedge is laid across the carbon and blackened at the bench. In Fused Mini Line Bloody, molten silver ran across a carbon plate and set as an uneven cap. In the Asymmetric Fused Winter necklace with meteorite, the silver is cast from a wax model and fitted to the carbon by hand. A brief can include a link to any of them: this kind of join, but on a ring.

What you decide in the brief

The carbon palette. STRUGA has six, each selected by the brand: Classic, Bloody, Toxic, Arctic, Winter and Multy Graphite. The carbon collection shows them on finished pieces, and MOSAIC shows carbon joined with other materials.

Which material sits in which. Carbon set into silver, or silver set into carbon — the sketch decides. The silver surface is yours to choose as well: Living Silver darkens on the hand, while oxidized silver is dark from the start, as on the Signature Cross V.3. So is the finish, matte or polished — note it in the brief.

Your size. For a custom ring the size is measured individually — the ring size guide explains how to measure at home — and goes into the brief. Carbon does not bend, so whether a finished ring can be adjusted later depends on its construction; it is a good question to ask while the sketch is being discussed.

Your budget. There is no fixed price list for this ring: STRUGA builds a proposal around your budget, and the price depends on the weight of the metal and on the complexity and size of the form.

How to order a carbon fiber and silver ring

1. Describe the idea in your own words in the brief on the Custom Order page: the kind of ring, the palette, your size, your budget and a date if there is one. You can attach a sketch or a link to a STRUGA piece.
2. Someone at STRUGA replies with questions and a personal proposal.
3. The sketch shows where the silver runs, where the carbon sits and how they join.
4. You approve the sketch, and the ring goes into work: 2–4 weeks, often sooner. That is a working range, not a promised date; someone at STRUGA confirms the exact timing.
5. Delivery takes about another week.

If the ring is needed by a particular day, say so in the brief. Someone at STRUGA will tell you straight away whether it can be done and move the order to the front of the queue; there is no rush fee. For an engagement ring, a wedding ring or a matching pair, start with Dark Union — the separate route for those rings, with its own brief.

Wear and care

Carbon is ultralight and unafraid of water. It is a composite: carbon fibers about 5–10 micrometers across, permeated with resin (carbon fiber overview). The material is extremely rigid but somewhat brittle, so a hard knock can crack it. A ring is also resin, a join and silver, and its care follows the most sensitive of them.

Silver asks for different care. Its patina is a property, not a defect, and the metal can be brought back to brightness if you want. Wipe the bright areas with a soft cloth; before trying soap, ultrasonic cleaning, steam or a silver dip, ask STRUGA whether they suit the piece — a dip strips the blackening from oxidized silver. STRUGA cleans and makes small repairs to any of its pieces free of charge for as long as you own them; shipping to STRUGA is paid by the owner.

Objects from this page

Read next

• Carbon in the STRUGA Atlas — what the material is and where it lives in the collections
• Carbon fiber and meteorite jewelry — how to care for a piece made of several materials
• Design your own ring — how a ring is developed from a sketch
• Seymchan meteorite ring — if you want meteorite in the brief as well
• STRUGA silver rings — the ready-made rings in the catalog