a few things

With midterms over it has been a whirlwind of activity.  I have not yet had the time to decompress but everything has to keep moving forward. I am demoing sculptris in my CAD/CAM II class. This will be our soft intro to 3D scanning and Zbrush. I am thrilled to get to teach what I actually want to teach with the tools I need to teach them. The sophomores did a vinyl cut wearable using illustrator and the vinyl cutter! They kind of knocked it out of the park. 

On another note I threw a ASIGA print under the microscope. The layering is nuts. This was at .5mm Z layer (the lowest/coarsest resolution).  The ASIGAs will print at .01mm which is incredibly fine but of coarse takes forever.  I have been printing all of my students stuff so there has been almost no down time with the printers.  

I GOT A MICROSCOPE. The nature lab at RISD hooked me up with an older microscope that they were decommissioning. I bought an articulating arm on amazon and boom now I have a microscope at the bench.  I have put most of my stone setting on pause to to focus on other things but I promise I will do thorough review later. 

The sophomores are making H-pattern rings which is exciting. We all practiced making patterns in illustrator.  Of course I had to take it a step further and make a laser cut stencil to trace the patterns on the metal.  I might have to sell these things! 

I have a big show coming up in July.  I am working on larger 3D printed neckpieces and bracelets loosely based on how self referential contemporary jewelry can be and how torn I am between the bench and the computer (more on that later).  I started modeling a cable chain necklace which will be printed in Nylon and have a metal component. For now I am testing the smaller parts in resin using the ASIGAs.  

I have to amp things up a bit.  On top of the large neckpieces I have to make five enameled brooches for ZOOM.  I am also working on a cuff version of my silver bangle (renders below).  I have not quite figured out if it should be open or shut on the end.  

After spying a book in Boris's studio I ended up ordering it! Modell-Lehrgang Fur Goldschmiede  It is a german goldsmithing course workbook.  It is not in English but it is full of amazing illustrations and handouts.  I started recording some of the more interesting pages. 

I think that is enough for now. 

Don't forget to follow me on instagram.   https://www.instagram.com/arhash/

 So many things to do!!!  

ASIGA printers

I am starting a new project in my CAD/CAM II class here at RISD.  This project has a simple requirement: 3D print a piece that accepts a stone. I decided that I wanted to do the project with them in order to familiarize myself with our new ASIGA printers. 

Brian Bergeron, the full time metals tech has been helping me perfect my support locations as well as understanding the little nuances of the printer.  

I will have to go into an in-depth review later, when I have time but for now I have a few first impressions.  First, the print area is small.  It is roughly the size of five matchboxes.  You could print six rings or a large brooch.  You might be able to squeeze in a bracelet if you split it in half.  I have only printing in the lowest resolution which allowed me to print three rings in under an hour and a half. I find that to be quite impressive give the time that it takes the FDM machines to print.  At the lowest resolution I can see the print layers with my eye but prints at the highest resolution have no visible marks from the printing process.

I wanted to try a tension setting. I started by ignoring all the rules and just printing a ring that looks good but probably wouldn't work. While that one was printing I started on a second ring. Adding material here and there until I got something that might work. If I try to make it work I will probably end up casting it in 14K yellow or 10K white gold to make sure there is enough tension in the material.