In my brief I set out to make a collection of jewellery that is completely interchangeable. This brand new collection does just that. With the use of magnets and Computer Aided Design (CAD) I have designed a mechanism in which Nylon flowers can be interchanged to suit your mood, outfit, or simply your favourite colour. I have created a collection of interchangeable floral jewellery, hand dyeing each one to take the 3D printed nylon to a higher level of quality and exclusivity, demanded by the jewellery industry. The slideshow below gives you an example of how the product works and shows off the variety of flowers that I have created.
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I left off last time from my previous blog post with my model prototypes and testing the material for my neck piece. A few weeks later and I am so close to having it all made! I sent off my final box to Digits2Widgets and it came back as a complete success with my neckpiece parts, display stands and flowers inside. I had to send off two boxes so that I had space to print all of those parts and 30 flowers as well. The next thing that I had to do was dye all of the flowers. It took me a while to decide which flowers I wanted for the flowers, originally I wanted them to look like a meadow in the display but I decided that the colours looked too random together. So I decided on blues, purples and pinks which kept with the floral theme but also kept the look modern and sophisticated. One thing that we have to do as part of our assessment is to do a full costing workup of our work. This got me thinking about how I would cost my work as there are a lot of separate elements to consider. After a lot of maths and headaches I decided that I would have three separate costs for my Small Medium and Large blooms and then a separate price for the silver shank on which the blooms sit into. This means that when I branch out into other items of jewellery, only the cost of that piece will change and not the flowers too. I also wanted to try and incorporate a 3D printed (sintered) box into my work like I had for my 'Full Bloom' ring. I tried to cost one for a ring and a flower but this was getting too expensive for what it was. I therefore created a three flower+ ring box which would be a set price and the customer can choose which colours they want for their flowers. This makes the product more desirable and individual. It's all starting to come together now and the studio has a constant soundtrack of pendant motors buzzing away! Less than two weeks to go now so it's the final push. Photoshoot is on Saturday with my lovely model Katy so I will be revealing those as soon as I can.
Thank you for reading! It has been an incredibly busy past month for me at the School of jewellery and things are only going to get busier and more exciting in the next few months!
I firstly have some very exciting news to share with you all! Firstly I have been selected as one of 10 students on my course to go to the prestigious New Designers exhibition in London in June. This is a national exhibition for graduates to show off what they have produced for their degree. If you are free I would highly recommend that you come and see some amazing new up and coming talent. ( http://www.newdesigners.com/visiting/about ) Secondly; as a student on the Design for Industry course I was able to apply for a grant from the William Dudley Trust for money to put towards my final collection and also to put towards my attendance at New Designers. I am proud to say that I was successful with both applications and received an award of £1000 to put towards my final module and attending new Designers. Now onto the fun stuff... I am now fully into production with all 30 flowers designed and the chain mail fully tested. Four weeks left to go and it will all be over...scary! The School of Jewellery has its annual graduate show from the 13th-17th of June so if you are in Birmingham please please come and see what the various courses have been doing all year. |
AuthorI am a third year student at the School Of Jewellery in Birmingham. Posts will be based upon my progress through my final year on this DFI course. Archives
June 2016
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© 2016 Jewellery by Rebecca Wilkes. All content on this site belongs to Rebecca Wilkes. Any images or ideas taken from this website without permission of the site holder will face prosocution. |