Plat Africa 2014 (Rhino)

Plat Africa Casting - Part 2

I have just recieved the second piece. The texture is not as rough as the first but still rough nevertheless and my wire work is still flat on one side, but it is still better than the first ring. There isn't enough time for me to get the ring re-cast so I just have to make do....wish me luck!

That time of the year again... Plat Africa 2014

For the Plat Africa 2014 competition, I have decided to design my piece using Rhino and manufacture it using a 3D printer and casting it. I did this because in my opinion its the best way to create a commercially viable piece of jewellery in this day and age. One major problem that I feel I might have is the time constraint.

Ute Decker

Ute Decker is a jeweller of German decent and is renowned for her wearable sculptural artworks. So much so that she was voted 'trendsetter' and one of Britain's most inspirational Jewellery designers.
what I find fascinating about Deckers work is her minimalistic approach to creating her jewellery pieces.

More of Deckers minimalistic pieces can be seen at ; www.utedecker.com

Finally cast!

The pieces I have manufactured towards the Octagonal bangle are finally cast! I am really pleased with the outcome. I don't think I've done too shabbily, considering that this was my first ever project using a 3-d printing service.

Robert Lee Morris

Robert Lee Morris, Born in Nuremberg, Germany is a Jewellery designer and sculptor who finds the inspiration of his jewellery forms from nature. His bold sculptural designs have been manufactured in metals such as Gold, Silver and bronze. He has collaborated and designed collections for fashion designers such as Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. Morris’s work has also been featured in fashion magazines such as Marie Claire, Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan just to name a few. Morris has not limited his designing and sculpting skills just to the creation of jewellery as he has also designed a perfume bottle for Estee Lauder. What I find interesting about Robert lee Morris isn’t just the sculptural jewellery that he manufactures but the fact that he is able to make his ‘wearable art’ a commercial viable product

http://community.dillards.com/2012/10/16/dillards-exclusive-interview-robert-lee-morris/

http://www.robertleemorris.com/pages/bio

Fritz using CAD?

Surely I must be on the right path regarding the use of CAD if a distinguished jeweller like Fritz Maierhofer has also started designing his artworks using CAD. On Maierhofer's website, he states that "The new tool is the computer screen. The goldsmith’s craft is not only defined by the file and hammer." Below is one of the pieces he has manufactured using CAD

 

Sliding Ring

Material : Aluminium

Not a good week....

Over the past few days, I have been re-doing my Rhino design commissioned for Vijay Shah jewellers. Prior to me starting on the design last week, I was briefed on the client tight budget and was specifically asked to note that each piece of the octagonal bracelet should not weigh more than 6 grams. It didn't seem like such an impossible task and I managed to make each piece weigh just under the 6 gram mark with the minimum metal thickness being 0.4mm which isn't very thin in my opinion (for a cast piece). Since Monday afternoon I was called every day with some minor adjustments from the printing company. Turns out that in order for the company to invest my wax pieces it needs to be dipped and then blow dried and that is where it kept breaking. So a brand new design had to be done with the minimum metal thickness being 0.6mm. hopefully this works out... Wax Printing isn't as easy and simple as everyone makes it out to be...

New work done by Fritz Maierhofer

These are some of the latest creations done by Fritz Maierhofer. He has manufactured a ring, bracelet and brooch in gold to form part of his latest collection. Essentially I am also looking at trying to create a collection of jewellery that is inspired by my sculptures. I must be honest, if there were no captions stating which was the brooch or the bracelet I would be really confused as it is difficult to tell them apart.

  Ring and Bracelet  

Brooch

B-tech meeting (22/5/14)

During our weekly B-tech meeting, we were reminded about our upcoming Anglo Platinum competition. I am rather excited about this because the brief states that the piece manufactured has to be commercially viable and must be suitable for export purposes. This is the perfect opportunity for me to incorporate my designing and manufacturing of the piece on Rhino, as I am of the opinion that using Rhino would be the ideal method of manufacturing a commercially viable article of jewellery in todays day and age.

Designing on Rhino

After attending a seminar regarding 3-D printing and printers, I felt motivated to start designing full swing on Rhino so that I am able to experiment with the printing and manufacturing of my jewellery. Below is an image of the bangle I have constructed for a client on rhino and sent out to print. Hope it works out.

Sculpture taking shape

 

Aluminium Prototyping of sculpture

Paper templates

I have been experimenting with cut outs of shapes made from paper which I can bend and tweak so that I am able to get the desired form. From this, I am able to create a template of the final shape. This would make my life so much easier when I construct my 'sculptural reference' in metal and not to forget saving a lot of metal and time.

Fritz Maierhofer

Fritz Maierhofer is a Jeweller from Australia. Maierhofer is of the opinion that jewellery acts as a communication tool, in which the wearer is able to send messages to the viewer. He feels that jewellery is a medium which should share equal rights on the podium with the more common arts being painting, sculpture and architecture. Upon creating his sculptural masterpieces he prefers to manufacture his jewellery in larger proportions as Maierhofer creates his Jewellery pieces to be miniature sculptures which are able to be hung on walls and displayed when not being adorned on the body.

 

Jorge Gil

Jorge Gil is a jeweller based in Havana, Cuba. The creation of his sculptures where only derived after the legal importation of his jewellery. The department of treasury that played the key role in importing his work commented that his jewellery pieces were like 'little wearable sculptures.' It was only after this review that Gil question himself about the scale between his jewellery and sculptures. He went forth and created sculptures using various metals such as bronze, titanium, silver, stainless steel. From the basis of the sculptures created, grew the start and creation of a series of sculptural jewellery pieces

More Images of Gils' work can be seen at : http://www.jorgegil-jewellery.com/ 

Keeping with the times

Whilst working at Vijay Shah Jewellers, I have noticed that there is a strong shift towards jewellery being designed on Rhino and printed using a 3D printer. I cant help but think that this is the way forward in the Jewellery industry. Whilst I am still not yet able to afford the 3-D printing system, I have purchased Rhino Gold earlier on in the year and somehow I have ended up neglecting to familiarising myself with this program. In my opinion, I feel strongly about this being the way forward in terms of manufacturing jewellery. Maybe I should try and incorporate designing and manufacturing on Rhino whist continuing with my B-tech?

Air Drying Clay

There is nothing more disappointing and frustrating than having ruined and broken many of the clay sculptures I have tried to create. I sought out the advice of my B-tech peers a few weeks ago and they advised me to use a polymer clay called Fimo. They recommended I use Fimo as the completed sculpture will need to be placed into an oven or microwave for a few minutes to become hard as opposed to clay which needs to be fired in a kiln. Feeling encouraged and optimistic again I headed off to Waltons in search of Fimo, unfortunately they did not stock that product, I was advised to try an air drying modelling clay which is very similar to Fimo apart from the obvious difference with it being air dried rather than heat dried. I haven't tried it just yet. Fingers crossed.

Playing with clay

 

Kamel Potteries

 

Today I finally made my way down to Kamel potteries in Springfield park. I queried about the type of clay I should use to create my sculptures and I was told to use 'Super white' clay as it was one of the strongest clays that she stocked as well as it allowing me to be able to add colour onto my sculptures. I was also told to just experiment and have some fun and I would eventually get the hang of working with clay.