My New Year resolution for 2018 is to practice 3D CAD drawing even more so eventually I could move from making a piece of jewellery complete from scratch by hand to introducing 3D printing on some parts of my designs.
My project for next year is to make a new collet for my silicone rings, because I am not completely satisfied with a current one. There is always a lot of post production work, filling and polishing that needs to be done when I pick up my collets from casters, simply because my master was handmade and not perfect finish.
I would be able to achieve perfect disk shape and much sharper edges when 3D printing it and then casting into silver. I believe with a bit of investment will pay of as I will save so much time on production side and my final pieces will be in a very high end finish!
It’s been about 6 months since I did my 3D CAD drawing course. Since then I downloaded free Rhino trial programme on my computer and been practising it on my own.
At the beginning it wasn’t easy to apply all the new learnt commands on my own designs. During 4 days training course we were bombarded with a lot of completely new information, so by the end of the course you feel very happy of what you have learnt and achieved. However once I opened the programme at home everything seemed really different and a bit overwhelming. I have been trying to practice using Rhino programmer every week for a few hours and I believe I am getting a little bit better every time!
My newest project is to design a watch dial that could be printed in 3D.
I work for company called Mr. Jones Watches as a watch maker. Every month we collaborate with different designers, illustrators or artists to design a watch for us. I have been dreaming about designing my own watch every since joining the company. In the past few months I have been actively thinking what kind of watch I want it to be. My jewellery designs are really textural and tactile, one of my signature style is my bubbly silicone pieces, so I wanted to keep a watch in similar style. However, to make a watch out of silicone would be practically impossible, and this is where my 3D drawing Rhino classes came in handy.
I came up with an idea for a dial that would have same bubbly texture, but then 3D printed in resin.
This is just very first prototype of 3D technical drawing and is not a final design yet. However I will be working on it further and maybe in the future we will see it as an actual watch!
Day 3 started with more complicated and exciting exercises. We we thought how to build rubover, rex, prong, square, and cabochon settings
Day 4 was an introduction to Surface Modelling, including closing open surfaces and combining open objects. We built a Bombey Ring and were shown how to use basic techniques for hollowing out rings. I found it very useful, as it saves up a lot of material when making a piece of jewellery in solid silver or gold. As well as well as allowing to create big bold pieces avoiding it to be heavy therefore unwearable. During this day we were also taught how to build pave setting and surface texturing. This was very useful exercise and I will apply it to my own jewellery.
I believe this course provided me with very useful knowledge and skills that will help me to develop my new jewellery collection, as well as open up future job and freelance possibilities. Introducing CAD drawing into my design will give me a freedom for limitless design and will enable me to create pieces that would be almost impossible to manufacture by hand. Also once I have practiced more I will be able to provide my clients with bespoke technical drawings before making the actual piece. By staying on top of modern technology I feel overall more confident about my practice as jewellery designer-maker.
Now I can’t wait to download free trial of Rhino programme, practice it independently and apply it to my own designs. We were also provided with very detailed handouts that will help me to remember all the information we received during the course!
Earlier this year I was awarded the a-n Professional Development Bursary for a Rhino CAD 3D drawing course at British Academy of Jewellery delivered by head of department Jack Meyer. It was an intensive 4-day training course for beginners, which developed my knowledge and skills of 3D printing and jewellery manufacturing techniques.
I am contemporary jewellery designer-maker and I create intricate 3-dimensional textured jewellery through experimenting with different materials and techniques. I am always looking for new ways of making jewellery. Therefore, I wanted to introduce 3D printing technology in my making process because I believe using 3D technology would enable me to create much stronger designs and have them in precise flawless finish.
3D CAD drawing is a tool that helps to interpret a complicated design, for example, a very intricate texture or a perfectly symmetrical or asymmetrically organic piece. My aim from doing this course was to learn and master this technology and then transfer it into my own designs. I ultimately want to develop new jewellery collection that would be combination of 3d printing and keeping some parts hand crafted.
The course was life changing and eye opening for the possibilities of 3D printing. Understanding how easy it can be to draw most intricate 3D ring in just 30 minutes, which otherwise would have taken at least 3 days to make it on the bench.
In 4 day course we learnt to use all of the tools that are useful for jewellery drawing. We started from basic commands and drawing primitive shapes and gradually moved to more complicated pieces of jewellery.
Day 1 was an introduction into the programme and it was all about organising models with layers. This included precision modelling, building basic objects with curves and basic transformation commands. By the end of the day we were asked to use all the tools we learnt to build a basic human shape
In Day 2 we learnt essential of 3D solid modelling strategies based on curves and using Boolean commands. We also constructed basic band ring, solitaire ring and eternity band. Jack showed us best ways to prepare files for 3D printing and best places to do so in London.
