Every piece of jewelry begins at the same place – an idea. How the idea arrives to the finished piece is where all the mystery comes in if you have never made your own piece of jewelry from scratch. Maybe instead of “mystery,” let’s just settle on calling it “art.”
With the advent of computers came a true innovation in the age-old jewelry fabrication process – computer aided design (CAD). Before CAD, skilled bench jewelers took an idea and transformed that idea into a wax model by hand using various carving tools. A carved wax model could then be used in the lost wax casting process to make a virtually exact metal copy of the wax model. CAD did not replace the skilled bench jeweler or artistic elements of wax modeling, rather, it simply mechanized the wax modeling process and added additional options to a contemporary designer’s tool kit. Hand carved wax models remain an important part of jewelry making today. In fact, I still prefer hand carving wax to CAD rendering for certain types of jewelry pieces.
The beauty of CAD is in its exactness and efficiency. CAD provides an on-demand 3D view of a jewelry piece during its creation. Elements of a design may be added, subtracted, or otherwise manipulated with the click of a mouse. To put the usefulness of CAD into plain terms, if you are writing a letter by hand in pen but forgot to say something in the body of the letter, you only have so many choices – start a new letter, write in between the lines or say it in a P.S. at the end. If you were writing the same letter with a computer, you could click anywhere in the body to add and subtract as desired without starting over. As time goes on, CAD programs continue to improve and enable designers to make jewelry more efficiently for customers.
I learned CAD because it was important to me to be in full control of the creative process. I felt like too much was being lost between an idea and the finished piece relying on a third-party CAD technician to make a CAD model. It is very rare to combine CAD proficiency with bench a jeweler’s knowledge of fabrication and construction. I am seeking to do just that as I build my skills from the ground up. We can make any shape, use any metal, incorporate any stone using CAD. There is no limitation to what can be modeled, except our imagination. With CAD in my arsenal, we can make anything together without delay. LET’S GET STARTED.
Every piece of jewelry begins at the same place – an idea. How the idea arrives to the finished piece is where all the mystery comes in if you have never made your own piece of jewelry from scratch. Maybe instead of “mystery,” let’s just settle on calling it “art.”
With the advent of computers came a true innovation in the age-old jewelry fabrication process – computer aided design (CAD). Before CAD, skilled bench jewelers took an idea and transformed that idea into a wax model by hand using various carving tools. A carved wax model could then be used in the lost wax casting process to make a virtually exact metal copy of the wax model. CAD did not replace the skilled bench jeweler or artistic elements of wax modeling, rather, it simply mechanized the wax modeling process and added additional options to a contemporary designer’s tool kit. Hand carved wax models remain an important part of jewelry making today. In fact, I still prefer hand carving wax to CAD rendering for certain types of jewelry pieces.
The beauty of CAD is in its exactness and efficiency. CAD provides an on-demand 3D view of a jewelry piece during its creation. Elements of a design may be added, subtracted, or otherwise manipulated with the click of a mouse. To put the usefulness of CAD versus hand carving wax into plain terms, if you are writing a letter by hand in pen but forgot to say something in the body of the letter, you only have so many choices – start a new letter, write in between the lines or say it in a P.S. at the end. If you were writing the same letter with a computer, you could click anywhere in the body to add and subtract as desired without starting over. As time goes on, CAD programs continue to improve and enable designers to make jewelry more efficiently for customers.
I learned CAD because it was important to me to be in full control of the creative process. I felt like too much was being lost between an idea and the finished piece relying on a third-party CAD technician to make a CAD model. It is very rare to combine CAD proficiency with a bench jeweler’s knowledge of fabrication and construction. I am seeking to do just that as I build my skills from the ground up. We can make any shape, use any metal, incorporate any stone using CAD. There is no limitation to what can be modeled, except our imagination. With CAD in my arsenal, we can make anything together without delay.
This is the beginning elements of a new cluster ring and under-gallery design. I love being able to interchange the position of each stone in a cluster design so the individual stones compliment each other. CAD provides me the ability to make exact replicas of any gem stone and manipulate every element of a design.
This is an example of a commission that was based on a similar piece owned by the client that needed improving. The rose in the original price was not realistic enough for my liking, so I studied pictures of roses and designed a center piece that could not be mistaken for what it was. I was able to incorporate the exact number of diamonds that the client already owned into design.
This is just an example of textual jewelry design. I can take an image of any person’s handwriting and turn it into a really unique piece of jewelry. I can add stones and loops for a chain. I can emboss the writing on a flat piece of metal for a pendant. I can imprint a name or a phrase into a casting. The sky is the limit.
This was a simple pipe-cut design for a men’s wedding right that was cast into black gold. This rendered image does not show the comfort fit profile on the inside of the ring, but it was an important element specifically included for the client. With CAD, I can round or sharpen edges, change the size at ease, make more or less width or thickness, add surface design elements, include spaces for flush-set stones. There are endless options. Let your imagination run wild.
This is the beginning elements of a new cluster ring and under-gallery design. I love being able to interchange the position of each stone in a cluster design so the individual stones compliment each other. CAD provides me the ability to make exact replicas of any gem stone and manipulate every element of a design.
This was a simple pipe-cut design for a men’s wedding right that was cast into black gold. This rendered image does not show the comfort fit profile on the inside of the ring, but it was an important element specifically included for the client. With CAD, I can round or sharpen edges, change the size at ease, make more or less width or thickness, add surface design elements, include spaces for flush-set stones. There are endless options. Let your imagination run wild.
