Jewelry Design, Between Traditional and Digital

idz object design strategy

Our foray into object design makes use of digital means and intends to realize a link between computational design, digital fabrication methods and material. We engaged digital tools in the environment of design practice with the aim of observing how they can influence the processes of creation and fabrication.

The research had two aspects, one related to the working method and one related to the final object, which expresses the design intention and the process through which it came into being. Thus, the working process was pursued as an abstraction of the design and manufacturing process through code. And the material result of this process becomes a proof of the digital process on the final object.

The working method is based on a feedback process between concept, manufacturing system and material. Thus the object is the result of a gradually evolving process, combining creativity with the attributes of digital tools. A continuous exchange takes place, where digital capabilities are subjectively interpreted, transforming the creative process, and conceptual requirements are abstracted and translated into code. The aim was not to achieve a completely digital process, but to relate, on the one hand, intuitive design methods with computational ones, and on the other hand, digital fabrication with traditional materialization processes.

It also aims at the variety offered by digital tools, therefore each project has a different working strategy, depending on scale, object type, material and fabrication method. But all projects ultimately end up expressing, to some extent, characteristics of the digital tools, either design or fabrication, that were used in their generation. Often the shape has different components, exploring complex geometric patterns that suggest the digital working method of topological deformations. Precision in the articulation of different parts is also a characteristic of the digital design and manufacturing environment. But objects can also bear traces of the manufacturing process.

Although the realized objects are small in size, both the working process and the manufacturing methods can be taken up and used on an architectural scale. Emphasis is placed on the articulation of the components, which is integrated into the concept, on the interaction with the physical environment, on texture, aspects that also characterize architectural practice. Fabrication tools are also a developing field, one of the directions pursued is the application on a larger scale to the construction of architectural components.

DIGITAL_SILVER jewelry collection

Jewelry belongs to the field of working with precious materials, which involves the precise shaping of artifacts on a very small scale. Thus, it is a laborious process that has always depended on the skills of the person materializing the objects. The computational environment has also become attractive to jewelers because of the precision and detail it can offer. Today, there are already many 3D printers that either print wax molds or, directly, silver jewelry, with high resolution but at high cost.

Unfortunately, jewelry design has not been transformed creatively by getting in touch with digital tools, with the focus being solely on the new technological assets on offer. The DIGITAL_SILVER jewelry collection explores how computational design and digital fabrication can transform the craft of silver working. The intention was to preserve a traditional process of silver working, casting, but also to modify the method by which the mold is made, both creatively and materially. Thus, we used 3D printed models with lower resolution and more accessible materials.

The formal search process aimed to generate objects with complex geometry, which have an irregular global shape but also a variable texture. As a result of the exploration, three digitally generated pieces were obtained. The intention was to obtain objects that express gradual transition, variability and heterogeneous texture. The mode of generation is evolutionary, thus starting from a rigid and ordered geometry, which is transformed and adapted in the creative process to become malleable. It starts from triangular or square grids that have been deformed by subjecting them to attractive or gravitational forces through dynamic relaxation. Homogeneous and uniform patterns are destabilized to become heterogeneous and concentrated. By topological deformations the grid changes its geometry, the cells are no longer identical, they become different, but remain in the same relation to each other. Even if the system is perturbed, it adapts by maintaining the connections between cells. The initially static pattern, through deformation, becomes dynamic and tense.

The fabrication involved two steps, the first 3D printing with ABS or PLA plastic, and the second molding of the silver parts, which used the printed parts as a lost mold. Plastic extrusion 3D printing is a very economical method of additive manufacturing, which gradually superimposes layers of molten material. Thus, the printed object can have a complex geometry that is very faithfully materialized, but which has visible layers of material with a thickness depending on the resolution of the 3D printer used, in this case the deposited layer is 0.2 mm. Professional jewelry printers emphasize the insensitive size of the layers and exact replication of the virtual model. The intention of the DIGITAL_SILVER collection was to preserve the characteristics of the digital manufacturing tool, of the traces of the layers in the final object.

Silver casting traditionally involves hand modeling the piece in wax, then making its negative in plaster, which will be used for casting. The plaster is poured over the wax and placed in the kiln, where the wax melts. When the plaster has hardened, the silver is poured in by centrifuging to reach all points of the object. In the process we applied, instead of wax we used ABS and PLA printed parts, which were burned off without producing a significant amount of impurities. By casting, the silver object takes over all the details of the mold, so the traces resulting from the addition of the layers remain on the silver piece. Thus, the printed object also receives a texture that was not part of the digitally generated geometry, representing the trace left on the object by the manufacturing process.

As the layers remain visible, the resulting object takes on additional meaning by revealing the process by which it was manufactured. Even though in the virtual model the layers of material did not exist, as the geometry was smooth, they are still part of how the object was created. The resulting texture, even if not intended to be an ornament, adds detail and at the same time enriches the silver object with meaning. In this way, the final object retains all its history, from the topologically deformed variable geometry specific to the computational generation environment, to the traces of the 3D printed die layers and the precious materiality of the cast silver.

photo: Dana TĂNASE, Ionuț ANTON