What do you make? Handcrafted / Handmade / Made with Love

[AntiqueB]

Working on this. In progress.

4ct smithsonian opposed bar cut bicolor tourmaline mined from Mt Etna Maine and some diamonds, idk.

View attachment 3908341View attachment 3908342View attachment 3908343View attachment 3908344View attachment 3908345View attachment 3908346One of the consequences of manually modeling a stone from scratch is that the object is unrecognizable to the program as a "gem object", disabling the auto-builders in Matrix, which forces me to manually model everything around it as a consequence. This has been an exercise in what I really know about the core software and parametric modeling without tricks or gimmicks.

That's amazing. Do you just use the software to model and plan, or also to print the mold?

 

[SarahLadd]

That's amazing. Do you just use the software to model and plan, or also to print the mold?

When I talk to people about this exact thing I call it a "working model". I can make some subtle adjustments to make the renders look more realistic and appealing to clients... things like chamfered edges to make gold look softened by polishing, prongs that look like theyve been pulled down on top of the stone. But the model is made to be in production. When I am finished designing, I'll be firing up my prototype printer, which is a resin STL printer, and make a life size replica that I can use to assess it for ease of polishing, fit of gems, "sanity check" fine details and more. When it passes the prototype phase, I will be mailing the cad file to another local jeweler with a Solidscape T76+ machine, who will print it in wax, sprue, invest and cast it in gold, and mail me the rough casting.

 

[SarahLadd]

Printing prototype....

 

[SarahLadd]

Prototype