Company & Jewelry Information

Frequently asked questions about Onetribe and our natural body jewelry.

Onetribe Information


+ Do you have a retail location?
+ Can I use the information or photographs on your site on my own site, or as a reference for a document I am writing?

Jewelry Information


+ Where does Onetribe jewelry come from?
+ Why organic materials?
+ Jewelry Size Conversions
+ Jewelry Wearing Surfaces
+ Why don't you carry "x style/material" in "x size"?
+ How is your jewelry measured?
+ Why does my jewelry's color/pattern/grain differ from the site photo?
+ Can I send you ______ material to be made into jewelry?
+ Can you custom make ___________ for me?

Onetribe Information



+ Do you have a retail location?

- Yes! Our office in Richmond, Virginia includes a jewelry showroom, anthropological and body modification related library, and a growing collection of tribal antiquities from around the world. One of our two jewelry workshops is located in this space as well, and we would be happy to talk to you in person about custom making pieces. The address for this space is:

403 Stockton St. Suite 101
Richmond, VA 23224

+ Can I use the information or photographs on your site on my own site, or as a reference for a document I am writing?

- The usage dictates when we will say yes or no, but our policy is no unless we give explicit consent. The Onetribe name and marks as they appear on this website and other materials are registered trademarks of Onetribe LLC. The original text, photographs, product descriptions, and designs on our website, and any catalogs or other materials are protected under US copyright laws and we take theft of this intellectual property very seriously. If you would like to contact us regarding permission to use any of this information on our site, we would be happy to work with you, especially if this is an academic endeavor.


Jewelry Information


+ Where does Onetribe jewelry come from?

- We make all of the jewelry that we carry ourselves, in-house within one of two workshops - one located in Richmond, VA at our main studio and one in Indonesia which is run by friends and their families. For in-depth information on the materials and labor involved in what we do, please visit our Material & Labor Origins page. Everything is made in either small batches or custom runs (and sometimes one-offs) and nothing that we put our name on is mass produced or purchased from any exporter, artist or other company.

+ Why organic materials?

- We've made it a point to address this question on our "Why Organic" page.

+ Jewelry Size Conversions

- Below you'll find a conversion chart for the size systems Gauge, Inches and Millimeters up to 1" For sizes beyond 1"/25.4mm simply add the appropriate fraction or number of millimeters to achieve your total size.
Gauge Inches Millimeters
16ga   1.3mm
14ga   1.6mm
12ga   2.0mm
10ga   2.6mm
8ga   3.2mm
6ga   4.1mm
4ga   5.1mm
2ga 1/4" 6.5mm
0ga 5/16" 8.2mm
00ga 3/8" 9.2mm
000ga 7/16" 11.1mm
  1/2" 12.7mm
  9/16" 14.3mm
  5/8" 15.9mm
  11/16" 17.5mm
  3/4" 19.0mm
  13/16" 20.6mm
  7/8" 22.2mm
  15/16" 23.8mm
  1" 25.4mm


+ Jewelry Wearable Surfaces

- Because we work in so many different materials, the wearable area of our pieces will vary slightly by batch due to limitations on the size and shape of each natural material we're carving. Smaller pieces tend to have smaller wearing surfaces and they grow slightly as the pieces get larger. Our ideal range for all of our pieces is 10mm to 12mm wide. If you require a specific wearing surface (either smaller or larger) we urge you to get in touch. We make quite a bit of jewelry to order and those items can be made to your specific requirements, but items that we carve in batches to stock, particularly those with carvings in the faces, are only available with default surfaces. We will, however, happily place an inlay or modified carving from another piece into a material of your choice to create a new set of jewelry with your specific needs, so get in touch if you think you'd like that option.

+ Why don't you carry "x style/material" in "x size"?

- It is our intention to create wearable art out of beautiful materials, and to utilize those materials in the best manner possible to provide a quality product. We may not be able to make specific styles smaller (mostly due to fragility) than a certain size, or larger (due to limitations of the material itself). Many times there is a detailed carving or inlay which is not physically possible to do above or below a certain size, or we have decided that the design will best represent our company, design and material between a specific range of sizes.

You are welcome to contact us about expansion of size ranges or making something in a specific material or size as a custom order, but here's a quick break down of what we can't do:

  • Bone cannot be made reliably larger than about 0g. Most bone is hollow, and when carving, we are using the walls and carving out the curvature to make a straight finished piece. If we make it took thick, too long or too wide, it becomes difficult to impossible to be able to remove enough material to keep the piece from curving sideways. We do have alternatives to bone (moose antler, for example) which enable us to be a little more creative.
  • Solid horn cannot commonly be made larger than 1.5". Hollow pieces are possible to around 2".
  • Mammoth Ivory and some other materials can be found large but commonly exhibit fractures/seams which prohibit us from making larger sizes.
  • It doesn't make any sense to make many kinds of wood or stone small because the grain has such intense patterning or variance that you will get little to none of it in your piece, and you will still have to pay a premium for that material.
  • We do not regularly stock extremely large sized spirals and hanging styles (3/4" to 1" and beyond) because they take an immense amount of material to make and most people don't realize just how large the pieces really are in relation to their face. We are happy to do these on a custom basis, at our discretion, for customers that are aware of and okay with wearing absolutely massive pieces of material.

+ How is your jewelry measured?

Each style is measured a bit differently. The following is a short breakdown of where each is measured according to how it is generally worn:

  • Plugs and Tunnels are measured at the wearable area between the flares, if it has them, or the middle of the saddle if it is single flared or non-flared. "Subang," or long style plugs, are measured at the largest point, which is generally just before the decorative portion on the face, or what could be considered the front flare.
  • Hanging styles that have a hook or generally have one specific section from which the jewelry is to hang from the ear are measured at that section.
  • Spirals and other similar styles with no flares or obstructions in the design can be worn anywhere along the wearing surface, but the size is measured at the largest portion.
  • Pincher and crescent shapes, septum pieces and other circular style pieces are measured in the middle of the piece, which is also almost always the largest point.

+ Can I wear natural jewelry in _________ piercing?

- Natural materials do best in dry parts of the body with the least amount of movement. One of the biggest limiting factors in whether or not you can wear a natural piece in any given piercing is the size. Unless the piercing has been stretched or was pierced at a larger than normal size, organic jewelry cannot be made small enough. In general we will not make horn or bone below 8-10g, we will not make stone below 8g and we will not make wood below 6g.

+ Why does my jewelry's color/pattern/grain differ from the site photo?

- Because natural materials are "found" and not made, we cannot control how the material itself looks. While we absolutely will not use low quality materials, we do not set a specific requirement for the way that any material should specifically look.

Horn is generally black but it is not uncommon to see transparent spots, beige or bright white inclusions, and other interesting mottling. Woods like Ebony are generally black but sometimes have brown grain running through the piece. We view these as more desirable pieces because they are incredibly unique and there will never be a piece just the same. If you have specific requirements, please do let us know so we can pick the pieces that will best work for your situation. If you are not interested in having unique pieces, we suggest you stick with one of the more predictable man-made materials available for body adornment. If you would like more information about exactly what each material can look like, visit our (link)Material Information(/link) break down page for very detailed descriptions and photos of how each material we carry may look.

+ Can I send you ______ material to be made into jewelry?

- Except in rare circumstances the answer will be no. We do not generally accept materials from customers or outside sources to be made into jewelry.  The rare circumstances include a custom project that we do want to do but that requires something you have that we are unable to acquire or where doing so would not be cost effective, and/or you approach us with a material or source for a material that we could purchase for making our products. We will not purchase raw materials from individuals unless the authenticity, origins, and your ownership can be proven.

We avoid accepting these materials due to the liability of us being trusted with something that is your property. We have clumsy days and if we ruin your material, it's our rears on the line. If we ruin our own material, we take a deep breathe and start over.

+ Can you custom make ___________ for me?

- Most likely, yes. However, we do have some guidelines that we follow when accepting custom projects:

  • We will not use an unsafe material (this includes questionable woods and other materials).
  • We will not recreate someone else's unique design.
  • We will not exactly replicate those unique designs which we have made specifically for a certain customer. It is their unique piece, a one of a kind piece of jewelry that we have made for them.
  • We will not do inlays or carvings of commonly used shapes, designs, pop-culture icons, This includes things like card suits, cartoon characters, beer caps, words or phrases, etc.
  • We reserve the right to say no due to time constraints, feasibility, or because we don't think the idea is a good match for our company. If we're going to be spending several hours making something, we would like to enjoy it!
Because we specialize in making adornments out of natural materials, we prefer to exploit said materials to the fullest extent to create a maximum amount of interesting design/grain/pattern/etc. These are the joys of natural materials, and this is what we enjoy doing. If this is what you like, then we are a perfect match.