All posts in Jewels

Jennifer’s Two-Faced Medallion

By | November 15, 2011 | 3D Printing, Art, Jewels | 1 Comment

Medallion of Roman God Janus

Dutch artist Jennifer Hoes has recently 3D printed a very nice set of stainless steel medallions at i.materialise. The medallions showcase the many faces of the artist in an attempt to remind us of the many faces that we create for ourselves in these modern times. We create our different identities towards the outside world on a daily basis. From the face we show at work, to the face we put on at home, to the face we hide behind when we’re online. It was this interesting fact of life that brought Jennifer to the Roman God Janus, famous for his two faces that represented the balance in society and who became the main inspiration for this work of art.

Jennifer shares five of her expressions with us: happiness, anger, sadness, fearful and neutral. The happiness and anger expressions are facing outwards while the mirrored image can be admired on the medallion’s inside. The neutral expression has been 3D printed on the medallion’s edge as a barrier between the two opposite expressions. On its border the words “IANVS SEMPER VNDIQVE MMXI” are engraved, meaning “Janus forever everywhere 2011”. It’s a great title worthy a great work of art.

For those of you who would like to see these works of art up close, they will be exhibited from 26 Nov – 8 Jan in Kunstzaal Van Heijningen in The Hague in a medal exhibition with 70 featured artists. Jennifer will show also 3 other medals at the exhibition. One called ”WIJ ZIJN BROER EN ZUS” (meaning, We are brother and sister) printed in multicolor composite (monochrome) and another one, ”GEBOORTE PENNING 2011” (meaning, birth medallion) cast bronze, from which the mold is cast with a print of the model in Prime Grey.

And if you can”t make it to the exhibition but still want to see more work of the artist, you can always visit her website at www.jenniferhoes.com

Do you think Stainless Steel is your cup of tea? Why don’t you have a look at what we’ve already done with it in our materials page? Who knows… maybe you’ll be the next great designer to showcase the power of this great material.

Jewelry design workshop: too many applicants – great fun – wonderful results

By | October 6, 2011 | 3D Printing, Community, Events, Jewels | 1 Comment

Last June, we posted an invitation to participate in a special contemporary jewelry design workshop with Karen Wuytens, lecturer in Jewelry Design, and famous hat designer Elvis Pompilio http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/i-materialise-3d-printed-jewelry-workshop-by-karen-wuytens. The workshop took place in early September at the .MGX flagship store in Brussels.

Unfortunately, we had to limit the amount of participants to 10, meaning that many applicants were unable to join in on the fun. However, the lucky 10 participants were not complaining about the cozy atmosphere as they spent 2 days at the .MGX flagship store, where they received an intro to 3D printing from i.materialise. Karen Wuytens shared how to design a piece of jewelry, starting from a basic shape. Fabien Franzen taught the participants how to make their design in the software MOI3, which is very well suited to jewelry design. And finally, Elvis Pompilio was on hand to impart some expert design advice.

An impression of the people working hard these 2 days

One week later, the lucky 10 visited Materialise’s headquarters in Leuven. What’s more, as we have some more space in these buildings, we invited the people who had not been able to join us in Brussels to come to Leuven and gain some insight. While here, they were able to see how 3D printers actually work, see the large range of available materials, and most importantly, saw their own designs being brought to life especially for them. It was incredible to see the reactions to their designs. Everybody was so excited.

Due to the success of this first workshop, we are considering to plan some more. If you have something in mind that you would like to learn how to design, let us know. Maybe it will be your interest at the center of our next workshop!

An impression of the visit at Materialise

i.materialise 3D printed jewelry workshop by Karen Wuytens

By | June 21, 2011 | 3D Printing, 3D Prints, Community, Design, Jewels | 2 Comments

In September we will be organizing a workshop in contemporary 3D printed jewelry design at the .MGX flagship store in the Sablon area in Brussels. The 3 day workshop by Karen Wuytens will take place on the 8th, 9th and 16th of September. Participation is free of charge, but limited to ten participants.

Karen is a jewelry designer and PhD-researcher at MAD-Hasselt, who uses 3D printing in her designs. For this she works closely with us here at i.materialise. Karen will share her experience in 3D printed jewelry and take you through the creation of a 3D printed jewelry piece. Karen would like to, “let designers taste the spatial possibilities of this innovative new technology as well as the acompanying production and design process.” Noted hat designer Elvis Pompilio will also attend and help give you some insight into his work. Fabien Franzen will also be there in order to give you guidance of the 3D modeling aspects of the workshop. The attending designers will also be given the opportunity to make their own pieces and visit the world’s largest 3D printing facility, Materialise in Leuven. We think this is an excellent opportunity for you to understand, learn and begin exploring contemporary 3D printed jewelry design and get a head start in the field.

If you are interested in attending please send an email outlining why you would like to attend to contact at i.materialise.com with “Jewelry Workshop” in the subject line.

The titanium 3D printed Persian pattern Gaia 1 ring by DaCapo

By | March 4, 2011 | 3D Printing, Design, Jewels | 4 Comments

DaCapo is a boutique Irish firm of designer goldsmiths that designs bespoke jewelry pieces together with customers. They tailor each piece to the customer’s wishes and work in gold, platinum, palladium and titanium. And now they’re working in 3D printed titanium together with us!

According to goldsmith and i.materialise Community Member Sé O’Donoghue the team makes “engagement rings, wedding bands, corporate gifts” and has made everything from books, to DomoKuns, to wheelbarrows, to scale replicas of Spitfires and Messcherschmidts, to Maori tattoo cufflinks, to anything you can think of” since the year 2000.

The DaCapo Gaia 1 ring is named, “after one of the first of the Titans from greek mythology after which Martin Klaproth named titanium in 1791.” The special Persian inspired pattern on the ring is similar to the one Sé has used for his family’s personal line of jewlery. He, his wife and 3 children all have variations on their own family pattern. That was a nice idea I’d never heard before.

It is exactly these kind of high end artisans that i.materialise wants to cater to. We are a factory for your ideas. And DaCapo’s ideas require a lot of freedom in geometry while their business model compels them to seek out lowest cost ways of producing this geometry in one offs using high end materials. We’re happy to offer both. You can buy the “Raw” Gaia1 ring by DaCapo for 165 Euro ($235).

So that’s is not cheap. But, we’re not in the business of producing Happy Meal toys. We want to be a place where high value things are created. And I believe this ring to be a beautiful example of that.

DaCapo will use us to produce “raw” titanium rings and other jewelry that they can sell directly. At the same time they will hand finish and mount stones in other pieces. For this type of production we would not supply the final product but an intermediate step. The final hand finished ring can be seen below.

We think that its an inspirational combination of 3D printing technology with skill, artisanship and love.

You can buy the final ring on Etsy for 270 Euro ($386).

The Raw titanium ring is 165 Euro ($235).

Check out their Etsy store here.

If you would like to work with DaCapo to design your very own unique piece of jewelery you can contact them here. To see some beautiful pieces you can check out their blog here. And this site also lists some of their work.