The week ahead

Tomorrow will see the arrival of the external assessors and they will be busy doing the rounds of the final year work, once they’ve finished it’ll be Tuesday, final year results day (4.15pm to be exact), and I feel a bit like the ‘accused’ waiting on a verdict. What that verdict will be I don’t know, but I’ll post it late Tuesday evening, I’m working ’til 9 that night.

Thursday evening is ‘Industry night’ when invited guests of the University get a preview of the degree show and after that the jewellers are going out for some food and banter.

Friday is the degree show opening night when the friends and families of final year students come to DoJ to have a look at our work, what my friends and family will make of my plastic prototypes amongst the shiny offerings of my talented year group I don’t know, maybe I’ll be waiting on that verdict with the same trepidation as the results, maybe more-so.

The show opens to the public on Saturday 21st May and is on ’til the following Sunday, details here

This week-end I’ve been playing around with Rhino in a non-jewellery way. I’ve been doing some designs for an EMA jewellery RFID scanner.

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.

Final year update

I’ve put some updates onto the final year blog.

Firstly a new page –  Onyx Cabochon –  which shows some of the development of a new piece. I’ll be looking to have this made soon, all the materials are available now (Cooksons order came yesterday) but the laser cutter is poorly so I’ll have to wait on it getting better before I can engrave another onyx cab with a new QR code. I’m also going to make at least one other version with a more decorative (and saleable!) design. This piece will also involve some photo etching.

I’ve also updated the Miscellaneous page with a couple of experimental degree show post card renders, I’m practising these to get scene setting experience in rendering and also because I might use renders rather than photos if the ‘making’ doesn’t go to schedule!

The main news today is that I received some RFID tags and a scanner. These have been loaned to me by Richard Fry, MD of Micro-ID. I’m really grateful to Richard for his help, it would be a struggle for me to get the concept over without this equipment, a scanner paints a thousand words! People who visit the show will now be able to scan items of jewellery.

I’ve got really busy week ahead so might not post again ’til next week-end. Image below shows the RFID scanner and 3 sizes of tag, fantastic.

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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An interesting article

A happenings mash up

Dissertation

Medical alert jewellery