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.

March Update

I’ve posted a couple of updates on the final year blog in the last few days, on the box brooch page and the RFID ring page. This week I’m waiting on some RP models of the RFID ring (image below) from Shapeways, silver from Cooksons and the cast box brooch from Niagara Falls, all should be here by Friday.

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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December Update

University is now, more or less, over for the year. Our final event, the xmas jewellery sale, finished yesterday and I think everyone sold some jewellery. I don’t know what the final total (in cash) will be but it was looking very healthy yesterday morning and sales were made right up until the close at 5pm yesterday. A big well done to all the jewellers for making a great success of it.

Over the xmas break I’m going to be putting together an application for the 2011/12 MDes program at Dundee and doing a personal statement in preparation for the visit of our exernal assessor which is at the end of January 2011. I also need to get started on work for assessments and the degree show.

In January I should find out if I’ve been lucky enough to get a Goldsmiths precious metal Bursary  award or not, the brooch design I used in my competition entry will be cast in silver if I get a bursary, otherwise, it’ll  be made in bronze. The image below shows an initial paper version of the brooch and a rapid prototype I had done, these  images were part of the Goldsmiths competition entry.

Coming up in January we also have a peer assessment day which will be part of our mid-term review so it’ll be a fairly intense month and I think we’ll all have to hit the ground running after the break. We were also told last week that the 17th of May is results day, with assessments on the 9th and 10th, that’s not enough time surely?

I wish you all a great winter break, see you next year :-)

Last render for a while

Resin Ring

Some Rhino chat

Cufflinks

Another render inspired by brake disks, this time a pair of cufflinks