My journey to becoming a jewellery designer
A new ring in the making; from sketching to finished product.
How my journey started
I am a self-taught jewellery designer and only found my passion for jewellery design in my late 30s. As a professional Experience designer by trade, I always felt something was missing and have always explored different interests and hobbies from textile design, painting and pottery to leatherwork. All to satisfy these creative impulses and ideas that were just pouring out of me. Like any artist or designer an idea starts with a spark fuelled by inspiration and the unlimited potential it holds and jumping in and exploring the ins & outs to pottery making for example, finding your niche within it and literally pouring yourself over it and if you’re lucky creating something unique and authentic. But, somewhere in the middle there though you have the realisation that in order to turn your passion into profit and a full time vocation, it requires looking at whether there is the potential to do so. I loved pottery and working with my hands - turning a slab of clay into something functional not to mention a work of art. But realised the amount of work that goes into it and the logistics around producing it, let alone distributing it - all for a small profit held limited potential for it to be viable. Especially in taking that leap of pursuing it as a full time job. So my creative pursuits continued and I dabbled in the basics of jewellery making until one day a very wise person and someone I admire dearly told me the key to success is choosing one thing and to focus all my creative efforts on that one thing that brings me the greatest joy and that I truly love doing. The best advice anyone could ever have given me! So I searched deep within and asked myself -what is my biggest source of inspiration? The answer was - jewellery!
Wax carving, Silver metal clay, Silversmithing, Goldsmithing, 3D Design & Printing.
Art & jewellery have always been a constant source of inspiration and a great passion throughout my life. I spent weekends scouring boutique shops and vintage markets for vintage period jewellery that reflected historical moments in time from the Victorian era, to the Edwardian era and Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the 19th century, or the Art Deco movement in the 1920’s.
That’s when I really saw the potential for a career in jewellery - spending my time doing what I love doing most! I saw a gap in the New Zealand market as I struggled to find jewellery that I really liked. So I started researching online and exploring the different types of jewellery making from handmade jewellery like Wax carving and Silver metal clay jewellery to the art of Silver & Goldsmithing, all the way through to 3D Jewellery design & printing.
Traditional jewellery methods
I explored various methods and found that the process of making ‘handmade jewellery’ like Wax carving; where you hand sculpt objects in wax before sending it away for direct casting (known as Lost wax) or Silversmithing & Goldsmithing; where you fabricate objects in metal by hand, to be true labor’s of love and found these methods to be an incredibly rewarding way to spend my time. Handmade jewellery can be very time consuming, but combined with the amazing skill of making moulds before sending it away for direct casting (Lost wax) - enables you to produce your jewellery pieces in numbers rather than just creating one offs. This was an “Aha” moment for me! No longer did I need to spend hours forging one piece by hand or risk having my painstakingly hand sculpted wax pieces break off from the casting tree and perish into the molten metal during the casting process. I could now easily reproduce my beautifully hand sculpted pieces.
Overall, Goldsmithing & Silversmithing form the basis of the jewellery I make as I believe in creating high quality jewellery pieces, designed to last you a lifetime - the opposite of fashion jewellery or seasonal jewellery. All my jewellery is made from recycled metal - using Sterling silver and 14k Gold as well as 9k Rose Gold. I use a lot of sterling silver in my pieces combined with gold, but used sparingly to keep the cost down - not to mention more affordable without compromising the quality.
From Sketching to Designing in 3D, 3D printing software, 3D printed wax ring & mould, to Lost wax casting process and the Finished 9k gold ring.
Combining 3D design with traditional jewellery methods
I even took it a step further and explored the idea of combining my love of hand carving with 3D design. The incredible thing about 3D jewellery design is the versatility it provides in combining it with hand carving and Goldsmithing, not to mention the amount of time saved from design right through to production along with the simple process of creating a wide variety of rings sizes using 3D software and 3D printing them before sending it off for mould making.
I knew little about 3D digital design other than perspective drawing classes I took at uni, but the idea was very appealing! All my years of experience within digital design were spent on creating engaging digital experiences through combining flat, two-dimensional compositions with that of transitions & animation to enhance and create a more natural user experience through the illusion of depth. We’re all familiar with this concept in our daily browsing of online web applications and using native applications on our smartphones. However, 3D design adds a third dimension of depth in creating objects across three different perspectives instead of just two (length and width). Perspective is the key to what you see in our 3D world.
Getting started with 3D jewellery design and your choice of 3D software
Designing a ring using ‘Rhino’s’ 3D Modelling Software
This was pretty jarring to me, shifting from a flat, one-point perspective to that of three. The on screen evolution of simultaneously creating and morphing an object across three different planes into a single 3D object. A good place to start is mastering perspective drawing on paper as this will not only improve your 3D design skills but also your ability to create professional conceptual jewellery sketches.
Now, when it comes to 3D design your choice of software is a big consideration and this is important, as there is a steep learning curve which requires dedicated time to get your head around the fundamentals of 3D design and fabrication - without incurring a huge expense at the start before you can even benefit from easily applying your skills in discovery and developing your own niche. There are a lot of amazing, new 3D Software applications on the market that provide fancy jewellery extensions - but that come with a hefty price tag. The biggest problem with all these different fancy tools & software applications out there is that they don’t provide useful online resources or training on how to get started and master the fundamentals of 3D jewellery design, - free training that is. You have to pay for it and anyone starting out including myself, looking to acquire the basics before even pursuing a career in it can be a daunting and challenging task.
That’s when I stumbled upon 3D Rhino jewellery software, very basic in its application without all the bells and whistles and they offer a free 3 month trial to get you started. Here is an article of The best jewellery design software in 2022 you’ll see why Rhino is at the top in terms of price. One of Rhino’s compelling features is it’s subdivision (SubD) geometry type which allows you to create editable, accurate organic shapes very quickly. Through online Rhino 3D training you’ll learn the fundamentals and become proficient in 3D surfacing, prototyping and rendering.
