Ring Samples

I went into the summer with some Rhino goals in mind, and I've been slowly working through a few of them with a series of ring samples. One of the goals was to increase my "organic" design skills, so I started with exploring curve networks. Coupling these curve networks with some solid primitive forms got me some simple but effective sample ring designs I was able to upload to Shapeways and get printed in a variety of materials. I think these samples will also be helpful to my students in ART277. I got various ring sizes printed to check the tolerances of printing, attempted to incorporate a "tension" held rutilated quartz stone and pushed scale limits. I've gotten about half of the rings from Shapeways, see below. TBC.

On the right in Pink - a stock band I created with curve network, attached to all ring samples. Left - Rutilated capture ring. 

Process capture of creating designs from solids.

With this ring, I tried to go as tight as possible to the minimum limit of material thickness for the top design. I'm calling it the "bite ring." I learned a lot trying to create the curve network for the top.  

The aluminum plastic on the left is hilarious to me because the design I created is meant to reference hammer texture. Oh, metalsmith humor. 

Sheila Ring - Finished - it's about time!

So, I finally finished up the ring to bracelet redesign. I am super happy with how the whole process turned went - from designing my first 3D modeled ring, to using a casting service and then post-processing myself. I definitely would get other objects cast in silver through Shapeways. While the cost was only $50.00 to get the design cast in silver, I did spend a considerable amount of time designing, cleaning up the ring, finishing, and setting the stone... so if I had to price out the piece for production, I would probably need to sell this particular ring design starting at around $175.00 to make a profit.  $50.00 for casting, 3 hours for post-processing labor per ring @ $20.00/hr and packaging, plus %60 mark up for profit, with design hours being paid for after the first 2 sales. Compared to a company like Skydog, price is right on par... And their paying rent in LA, which means their jewelry is a steal - GO SHOP NOW!

Sheila Ring - Update

I got the print from Shapeways - it looks pretty good! I went for the raw silver finish and will buff it up myself. I popped the stone out of the bracelet. Just working on getting the ring polished up and then set... Hopefully this weekend. TBC