Let's talk about...Jewellery

A bit of something different today - kinetic jewellery. Seeing how I need to design something with mobile/moving/moveable elements for Goldsmiths Competition, I thought that kinetic jewellery would be interesting to look into. So there will be a lot of images in this post with links to the websites of respective creators.

Kinetic jewellery is characterized by motion or movement.
Kinetic jewellery always has elements which move;  I've also included jewellery, which you can assemble together in the post, because I view it as having moveable elements.

Starting off with man of the hour - Friedrich Becker - creator of kinetic jewellery and objects, internationally renowned goldsmith who made a major contribution to the art of golsmithing. His work is absolutely brilliant - pictures don't do it justice - you have to see his pieces in motion to fully understand just how creative he was. If you ever have opportunity to see his work in real life - take it; if you know you won't have that chance, but  are still interested, then watch short video I found on YouTube below.

Last week on Wednesday and Thursday in Birmingham annual TCT Show took place in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC). I was fortunate enough to go, and before I go deeper into my personal experience of it, a bit of background information. 
TCT Show, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year is an international event bringing forth new technologies, applications and innovations. There is a lot of focus on the additive manufacturing, 3D printing, prototyping, product development, software, scanning and digitising.



 It was fascinating to see how far technology moved forward - various 3D printing machines and products that I've seen on the show were truly amazing. Seeing how I'm studying Design for Industry, you might ask: What does it have to do with designing? Well, best designers are not only imaginative, creative people, designing products - they also know how the products would be produced. What's the point of designing product which you couldn't bring to market because it would be too difficult to produce? So knowing technologies available to you is vital in a design.

It's good to know that thanks to 3D printing you can create prototype of jewellery that can be easily cast afterwards - it saves you some time, unlike wax carving or making metal and milliput model, and adds more precision to model, because machine works directly from CAD design.
 To learn bit more about 3D printing - how it works and it's applications, watch video below:


It was also great to hear about possibility of scanning 3D objects and turning them into CAD models - it's interesting idea and gives you a lot of room to play with - the options for application are huge.

Watch video below to see how it works:


All in all, TCT Show was worth going to - technologies I saw were wonderful, products manufactured using these technologies - even more so. If you get a chance to go next year - go and see what's out there - you will be pleasantly surprised.
That's everything for today.

                                                          Stay golden!!!

My course officially started on Monday 28th after Induction Week, and all I can say about it is - very busy.Well seeing how Design for Industry (DFI) is only one year course it was sort of expected. It's still a bit of shock though - a bit like being splashed with cold water on a hot day- after 3 months of freedom and relaxing on holidays. Oh well, it's definitely going to get even more hectic - I have brief for first project and will need to complete 2 commission tasks, design in CAD sculptural 3D piece with moving/mobile elements for competition + prototype, document CAD exploration in Learning Log, and analyse pros and cons of programs that I'm considering to use. How exciting.

So after writing Personal Development Plan (PDP) for this year, I went back to look at my inspirations. Everybody works in different way when developing design, and as you could probably notice from insect sculpture post, I always start with research into inspiration - this time I chose to look back at what I'm inspired by most often, and came back with fairly simple answer - nature.


As a person who grew up in a small village, surrounded by forests, fields and hills, living in one rhythm with changing seasons all around me, nature is and always will be something to admire.
But with nature being as broad a term as for example architecture, I had to scan my Pinterest moodboards (if you don't know what a Pinterest is - shame on you - check it out and you will find out that it's amazing tool to organise your interests in one place) and look at specific elements that I return to back again and again. I found a lot of flowers, but it felt too obvious, seeing as I already explored that interest through Rose Cascade necklace.
This is what I discovered:

Repetition of the specific elements, textures, forms

Spirals in the nature - nautilus shells, ferns, fossils etc.

Intricate details on the skeleton leaves and plants and its similarity to the wings of insects

Spider webs with raindrops on them

Each of these really makes me stop and think: WOW.
If only I could make this elements into jewellery I could die happy.
That's it for now.

                                             Stay golden!!!