With This Bone, I Thee Wed

Royal College of Art jewellery designer Nikki Stott has come up with a highly original concept in wedding bands - a ring grown from the bone of the betrothed! The rings are made with the help of Ian Thompson, a bioengineer at Kings College, London. Bone-making cells are harvested from small pieces of the bone of each partner - such as slivers of jaw bone collected when wisdom teeth are extracted. The bone cells, called osteoblasts, are then added to a culture dish where they take over a ring-shaped growth matrix which slowly dissolves as the cells colonise and begin to lay down new bone. When the process if complete, the resulting rough bone circles are then given to the designers who, in consultation with the couple, shape the bone into customised rings!