Well…

…I knew that I hadn’t posted here for a while but didn’t realise it’s been so long. I’ll have to remedy that very soon and get more posting done here.

In the weeks since I last posted I’ve been very busy on the MDes and I’ve got a new job although I’ve not got a formal start date yet. I’ll post about that when I know more.

I think my site is due for another overhaul, the blogs need tidied up and reorganised and I think I need a new front facing page. I’m thinking of putting the interactive wearables pages back on the front line as I want to try and create a commercial image. I think I may be looking at working on Rhino a lot more and am hoping to get work CAD from designers, creating CAD models from their designs.

More soon

Dougie

Middle of April

It’s been a while since my last post, I’ve been a bit lost.

I lost the thread of what I was trying to achieve with my final year work and started to move away from my concepts and tried to produce finished pieces of work. I think it began when I won a Goldsmiths award, that meant I was going to have to produce a piece in precious metal when I hadn’t planned using any, this then shifted into the other pieces I was working on and before long I’d fallen into the ‘shiny pretty things’ for degree show mindset. I spent almost a week in the design studio and workshop surrounded by half finished pieces of silver work not really sure where they were going  and changing things about them as I worked.

After discussions with tutors I’ve ditched the silver pieces, apart from the Goldsmiths effort, and have gone back to concepts, rapid prototypes and renders.

There’s a little over 3 weeks ’til assessments, I’m waiting on Shapeways RP orders and have started to make up posters which show a graphical representation of my dissertation and EMA jewellery concepts.

Another post in the next couple of days about help from a company who have loaned me QR code reading equipment.

Box Brooch

I’ve finalised plans to have my first degree show piece cast this morning, it’s an updated version of the box brooch I submitted as my Goldsmiths entry and a .stl model has been sent to Niagara Falls casting company which should be ready early next week. There are changes to the rear of the brooch, and I’ve reduced the depth of it but the changes enhance the design. I now need to get a Cooksons order done so I can make the brooch rear plate and begin a couple of other pieces.

Renders and an update on the design will appear on the final year blog later today or tomorrow and photos of the piece will appear after assessments.

Update

I’ve been neglecting both of my blogs lately. While using Rhino I’ve come up against a problem I didn’t think I’d ever encounter, too much choice! I keep getting to a point with my RFID project where I think I’ve got a final design then I change my mind and move onto another. I’ve decided I want to produce a couple of RFID rings, one will display the technology overtly as part of the design and the other will hide the technology, mimicking a usable piece of EMA jewellery, however, I keep mixing and matching the two designs which is driving me a little nuts. I’ll have to make a decision soon to allow time for RP models.

Another reason for the blog neglect is I’ve been doing a bit of making. After a successful experiment laser engraving onto semi-precious stones I’ve developed a brooch design which incorporates QR code technology. This will be further developed into a degree show piece using precious metal so that’s another shiny piece of jewellery for the show I wasn’t planning on having. Development pictures may find their way onto my final year blog over the next couple of days but the final pieces wont be featured until after assessments.

Help – I need some suggestions for a hi-res webcam, 10MP would be good, if anyone can post or send me a link that would be appreciated

Last week and the next week or so…

So being successful in the Goldsmiths competition means I will be making at least one piece of jewellery from precious metal, which will be silver.

The box brooch from the previous post will be created in the very near future. Over the next few days I’ll have to make some alterations to the CAD model because I wasn’t happy with the hinge arrangement after I got the RP model model back, then I’ll get a wax 3D printed and then hopefully get the piece cast. In most cases it’s usual to get a mould made to create the wax from and allow multiple copies to be made, but because this is a one-off piece I can’t justfy (or afford) the cost of that.

Also last week I was in touch with a company which specialises in RFID technology, they’ve agreed to sponsor me by lending me the equipment I need to produce the interactive RFID concept. This is a major boost for me because without help like this It would be impossible for me to afford the technology, there will be (much) more on this later.

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Box Brooch RP model

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Final year Jewellers xmas sale

Happening in the foyer of Duncan of Jordanstone, 14th – 17th of December. Get some unique jewellery from the class of 2011.

Poster by Roisin Connolly

November update

Quite a lot happening at the moment, still dissertation writing even though I’d hoped to be done by now. Main reason is I’ve been adding in some material that has come to light in the last few weeks and I’ve also been working on a design for the Goldsmiths Precious Metal Bursary competition.

I’ve also been giving serious thought to the degree show and what I’m actually going to show! I had always intended to show new designs for Emergency Medical Alert jewellery, however, because of the results of the dissertation research I decided to abandon that idea because it wasn’t practical to design jewellery that wouldn’t actually work as EMA jewellery. I moved on to thinking about designing some narrative jewellery which could carry information or objects related to a client while still trying to utilise technology and make the jewellery interactive. In the last few weeks I’ve been talking to people about this and my future (i.e. what’s happening after the degree show),  and I’ve decided to move back to creating EMA jewellery, but in a conceptual sense.

This then leads to the questions, if it’s a concept do I actually need to produce it? Can I produce it?  Or do I just have to produce the body of work looking at the concepts, research, models, prototypes, renders, animations? Time will tell but I feel at the moment that shiny pieces of precious metal jewellery will not be a feature of my show.

Opinions are welcome

Acrylic ring set

Some of my 3rd year work was featured on thecarrotbox.com recently and I’ve had loads of visitors to the site because of that. Thanks for highlighting me go to Alice. The rings can be seen in the original blog post HERE and on Flickr

Designer Research Project

The first image shows all of the rings in their display case.