Every SENMOMO piece is touched by people who are not in our studio. The stone suppliers, the clasp engraver, the paper-maker, the teacher who taught mo to knot. Where we know names, we use them. Where we don't, we say so.
"I have wanted to name everyone for a long time. Not all of them want their names public. Where someone has declined, we have honored that and described the work without the name."
— mo
Akiko runs a small atelier on the second floor of a narrow building in Osaka's Shinsaibashi district. She is in her sixties. She has been knotting pearls since she was twelve.
mo flew to Osaka twice in 2024 — five days, then a full week — to learn the standard pearl knot at Akiko's bench. The technique she taught is the foundation of every SENMOMO piece. "You stop counting your knots. You start counting your breaths," Akiko told her on the third day. mo has thought about that sentence almost every morning since.
The studio has not licensed any technique from Akiko; she simply trained mo. We acknowledge her here because she should be acknowledged.
Every 925 silver clasp on every SENMOMO piece is cast and hand-engraved at the same Hangzhou workshop, by the same artisan, since 2024. She has now engraved over four hundred clasps for us. The mark is identical across all of them; her tolerance is roughly a tenth of a millimeter.
She has declined to be named publicly. She is, by her own description, "the person who does this quietly," and she would prefer that arrangement continue. We honor it.
Mr. Lu, 71, has been making mulberry paper by hand for forty-six years. He learned from his father, who learned from his grandfather. His workshop is on the same lane as Mrs. Yang's atelier (where Wei trained). Wei walked past his workshop every morning for two years before introducing him to mo.
The SENMOMO box, beginning August 2030, is his work. Eighty-three prototypes over two years. The fold pattern is his invention. His daughter cut the press for the embossed studio mark. Wang, who has been pulping bark for him since 2008, makes the paper itself.
A small operation, two siblings and their father, buying directly from regional mining co-ops. They supply our rose quartz, strawberry quartz, citrine, amethyst, and smoky quartz. The price is consistently higher than the market average for the grades; the stones are visibly better.
They have asked we not name them publicly until they have grown beyond the current capacity, which they say will be 2027. We will name them when they are ready.
A family business, three generations deep in jade. mo travels to Hetian twice a year to select stones in person. The grey-green shade we use is specifically theirs — most other Hetian suppliers carry brighter green stock for the tourist trade.
A dealer who personally inspects every batch before it leaves his hands. We pay for the right to reject roughly three out of every four moonstones; he honors it. mo visited him in 2025.
The lapis comes from the cooperative miners at Sar-i Sang in northeastern Afghanistan, through a long-standing Pakistani importer. Documentation is imperfect because the region is what it is. We disclose this openly on our sourcing page.
A single Oregon-based miner working the same plot since the 1990s. Our annual imports from him are small — perhaps 60 stones — but the stones are the most distinctive sunstone in our library.
A family-run freshwater pearl farm in Zhuji, the world's freshwater-pearl capital. mo visits twice a year to grade in person. The natural irregularities in each pearl are why we use freshwater rather than saltwater.
We have been quietly considering replacing our current silk thread supplier with a small naturally-dyed silk workshop in southern Vietnam. The work would extend our "small craft sustains small craft" principle to the silk itself. Conversations are early. If it happens, we will write about it here.
Most jewelry brands obscure their trade partners. The supplier is a secret. The clasp comes from "our manufacturing partner." The paper, if mentioned at all, is "premium quality." None of this is information.
SENMOMO chose to do the opposite. We name where we can. Where we are asked not to, we describe the work and the relationship without the name. The principle is that the trade network is not a competitive advantage to be guarded — it is the actual work, and acknowledging it is the right way to treat it.
I think of these named people as part of the studio. Not employees. Not even partners in the legal sense. Nodes in the same network. Mr. Lu sustains Wang, who has been pulping bark for him since 2008. The Hetian jade family sustains itself across three generations because they have customers like us. Akiko trains apprentices because she was trained. None of this is corporate. All of this is craft.
If your piece arrives in your home, somewhere between thirty and sixty pairs of hands across multiple countries have contributed to it. That is what a small object is — when it is made the way it should be. The names on this page are how the work stays honest.
— mo ✍
About 30 people, across about 10 trades, across about 6 countries. We try to keep it that way. Quality compounds in small networks; it dissipates in large ones.