Have a Heart

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. 

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! 

A 3D rendering of the final design, note the 'R' viewed from the side

A view of the heart from the front

...and the 'H' revealed on the other side

The final pendant, 3D printed in sterling silver

...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!

A 3D rendering of the 'L.F.' pendant

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 ;-)