Let's talk about...Jewellery

I'm alive! Yes, yes, I know it was long, but I do have a good reason for not writing - I found jewellery design job in a company, and currently I'm still undergoing training. So far I have 2 jobs, and commission I'm working on, so it's all about juggling the workload. This will be a very brief post, just a small sneak peak of commission I'm working on.

My brother is getting married, and I was asked to make wedding rings. His fiancee had very specific design in mind, and I ended up carving it in blue wax. I got the castings back yesterday - they are in yellow 14ct gold. I'll need to clean up sprues as soon as I have some time (today is a job day for me). I'll talk about it in more detail, when I have some more time.

After a very long and eventful period of my absence I'm happy to say I'm back! It's been busy time for me - finishing off laser project, starting a business module and to top it off finishing entries for Goldsmiths' competition - no wonder that with so much happening, my immune system refused to cooperate and I had set back of few days with really bad cold...But since last Monday I've been back in the game, and I'll start with updating regarding my entries for Goldsmiths and HSBC Time capsule project.

I'm going all out today, to get as much blog updates as possible, so here it is. The new and exciting HSBC Time Capsule Competition.
What is it? Well maybe a bit of background to it.

 So I wasn't sure about partaking, but it is such a huge opportunity, to not only design for client as big as HSBC, but also go down in history - plus you are expected to use ArtCam, which as you know, I love a lot. So I started some development...








So far so good - it's definitely a busy holiday, but I can't say that I'm bored!

Finally got around to talk about 3DESIGN and commission I had for it - this time it was engagement and wedding ring. As far as I found my experience of 3DESIGN - it's different. I definitely can see appeal of it - the history tree and the way you can link everything, so after you modify, for example stone size or cut, changes everything to match around it - is great. User friendly interface is fine, but I found it bit annoying that if you miss one step, you can't follow through with the command. Shaper - similar to T-splines has a lot of potential, and the things you can do with it look great (I didn't get much of time to play with it though). Priceless is the fact, that the layer you work on light up on the screen - although I adore ArtCam, I'm very annoyed when I miss going to the right layer, and work in completely wrong one. But it's very different from the rest of the CAD software we were using, and maybe that's why I find it not as enjoyable as the rest of them. Commission for 3DESIGN was quite standard - customer wanted 0.5 carat diamond, stone not too high, shank around 3 mm thickness, additional stones on the shoulders, as well as brilliant or princess cut stone (client wanted to see both). Wedding band was to be with no cut outs (no wed fit!) and stone set.

Matrix is a program very similar to Rhino. It has extra tools such as profile placers, gems, settings, and my absolutely favourite part of it - v-ray styles rendering - brilliant for making extremely realistic renderings of finished product. It's good for making some standard rings, but of course it's possible to be more creative with it. Matrix commission was a wed fit ring - wedding band with a cut out to match engagement ring. It wasn't as creative as teacup or even wedding ring inspired by forest, but to be honest we weren't supposed to be spending that much time on it. It was more of a step by step process, but to be fair we did have selection of different engagement ring scans to match our designs with. Other than cut out, commission was to have some stones added (sizes and amount I mentioned below).

Since the beginning of the September I've been working on CAD/CAM Skills Acquisition. I was very excited to start working with computer aided design software - my previous experience with it  included only engagement and wedding band design competition for Weston Beamor - and it was to be made in Matrix.  During project I was to not only learn 4 different programs - Rhino, ArtCam, Matrix and 3Design, but also make use of the skills by completing 4 commission tasks.
Starting off with Rhino commission - design teacup charm for bracelet, no bigger than 12mm - form, handle and external texture was to be experimented with. Teapot charm was second part of it - size of it could be bit bigger and again I was given a lot of freedom with form, handle and texture.
Here is my development of both pieces.










Hope you enjoyed!