# Mokume-gane (木目金) — image generation prompt
# IndexStyle No.520 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/mokume-gane
# Style descriptors only. This prompt names no artist, studio, brand or work.

Produce four original images in the visual language of Mokume-gane, a technique from Vessel and Craft Techniques, 17th century–.

## What to make

Make the kind of thing this style exists for: when a ring or a vessel should be patterned by the colour of the metals themselves, with no plating and no inlay, or when a small production run needs every piece to carry a different figure. Choose one subject and hold it across all four images.

## What has to be visible

- The stripes close into rings and whorls that read like the end grain of a log
- Reddish copper, white silver and darkened layers sit directly against one another
- No two pieces from the same workshop carry the same figure, even at the same shape
- The stripes do not stop at the edge; they continue through the thickness of the sheet

Someone who knows this style should be able to point at each of these in the finished image.

## How to build it

- Layout and structure: The pattern is the subject, so keep the form plain. Let the grain follow the outline of the object and close the edge with one narrow band left blank
- Type and lettering: Keep any stamp to a single small mark. Place it clear of the strongest stripes and cut its lines finer than the grain
- Material and surface: Stack sheets of metals that differ in colour, such as copper, silver and shakudo, and bond them into a single billet under heat and pressure. Gouge into the face to expose lower layers, roll the billet flat, then raise it into shape. Finish by polishing and colouring so the layers separate
- Colour: #C0C4C8 carries the ground, #B87333 is the colour the style is remembered by, #3A332E holds text and outlines. Read off real works, so treat them as a direction rather than a fixed palette.
- What it should feel like: technique, luxury

## What goes wrong

Thin the layers too far while chasing a particular figure and one cut goes straight through, breaking the pattern.

## Across the four

Keep every cue above present in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows the range this style covers rather than four versions of one picture.

## Constraints

- Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work.
- Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work.
- Produce original compositions in the general period language described above.

Full design spec: https://indexstyle.org/styles/mokume-gane/design.md