Often people mistake my 'Design of the Week' for something I have designed. Sadly, I do not wish to mislead, Design of the Week, is purely a platform for me to showcase some of the great designs other people have come up with, and heap kudos where required. In reality, most of what I do is secret. I'm not talking MI5 secret, just commercially sensitive. And unless the product makes it to market, or I have permission to talk about it from my client, you won't see what I've been up to. This is a shame, but totally understandable.
On that note, I thought it would be nice to share with you something I am allowed to show you, because, for this job, I was the client! Before Christmas I received very strong hints that, instead of talking about the wonders of 3D printing metal (and in particular, silver), I should try actually doing it and create a piece of jewellery for my wife! I've got to admit, I don't usually enjoy designing for myself - it's a bit like working a second job when you're worn out after the first, but this was quite exciting and I was keen to see how it would turn out.
I began by scamping up ideas in my notepad, I thought it would be nice to get some personalisation in there, so it would be a complete one off. I looked at integrating her name or initials and then woke up one morning with an idea in my head. I'd try and make a heart shaped pendant, constructed from our first initials combined together (so 'H' for 'Helen and 'R' for Rik). Conveniently, Helen's middle name is 'Rose' so it also worked as a 'Helen Rose' Pendant.
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| 3D modelling the heart pendant |
The next stage was to 3D model the pendant in my CAD software. As it happened, this was a lot easier than it used to be thanks to my new Rhino plugin 'T-Splines'. For those not familiar with the 3D lingo, this is a nifty bit of software that makes organic shapes a lot easier to create. Where traditional 3D modelling software is quite rigid and engineering based, T-Splines is a bit more like working with modelling clay. Anyway, the model was created and uploaded to Shapeways, a 3D printing service based in Holland. Two weeks later I received my model back, printed in sterling silver and hand polished! All that I needed to do then was source a silver necklace, wrap it up for Christmas and take the Brownie points!
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| A 3D rendering of the final design, note the 'R' viewed from the side |
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| A view of the heart from the front |
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| ...and the 'H' revealed on the other side |
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| The final pendant, 3D printed in sterling silver |
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| ...and worn around the neck of my wife! |
Not content with buttering up my wife after the success of my first 3D printed silver design, I then decided I'd create a piece of jewellery for my mother-in-law's big birthday. Again, I began with her initials 'L.F.' but this time gave it a musical theme (given that she had a career as a music teacher). I took inspiration from the forte symbol in music (meaning loud). Now I'm not for a second suggesting my mother-in-law is loud(!), the symbol is just conveniently 'F' shaped!! For the 'L', I flipped the forte symbol up-side-down and broke the stem of it. And there you go, another bespoke pendant!
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| A 3D rendering of the 'L.F.' pendant |
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| The 3D printed 'L.F' pendant |
So I guess in summary I'm saying, 3D printing is pretty cool! This jewellery was as finished and polished as that that you find on the high street - but completely original. It was also very affordable. The most challenging aspect was coming up with a great idea, but from then on, it was all relatively easy for me. It was worth learning about 3D modelling after all ;-)
