Design Progress:
Up to this point, I have realized that the designing and creation of the jewelry is taking much longer than expected and will unfortunately prevent me from executing out my original proposal of experimenting with different materials through fabrication services. That being said, I have made significant progress up to this point. I have currently completed the modeling of one bracelet with a perforated tiling pattern. I am currently working on a secondary bracelet that instead incorporates an “engraved” pattern such that it has a complete but textured surface for a different visual representation of patterns. So far I have been jumping around between the different jewelry pieces, but the only completed one at this point in time is the bracelet.
As for general design processes, I am using the computational elements from the tiling and GCODE assignments for base patterns and manipulating them to create functional jewelry solids with visual and textured designs. Except for the approach I intend to take on with the GCODE designs, most of my processes thus far has begun with programming a base surface model, and somehow morphing the patterns onto it or into something of the same shape.
Progress Documentation:
Most of these models take on similar processes for the two concepts I am using. The tiling patterns use a lot of the computational techniques we used for our large project with additional logic to create the following perforations as its structured surface.
The following is the design progress for the bracelet in images (like previously mentioned, most of the pieces will likely follow something similar):
Physical Object Prototype:
This was one of my failed attempts (the wall width was too thin):
This is the first, successful print of the perforated bracelet that I created (no supports were used):
Updated Deliverables:
After working with the first model, I underestimated how difficult and time consuming creating these patterns were going to be, especially using the fabrication services I originally had in mind. With that being said, I spoke to professor Buechley and have decided that I will instead print the models using my own 3D printer with allowable filament (will experiment with TPU). This means that for patterns that require “color”, will instead incorporate textures in some way to make it visible to the eye. Additionally, since each piece will be unique, I will likely only be able to create 4-5 instead of the 6 I had in mind originally.
Updated Timeline:
Given the conflict that the Tiling project had with my original timeline and the new updates to my deliverables, my updated timeline is as follows:
Nov. 12 – Nov. 20 : Creating models and patterns for the jewelry – designing and finalizing on concepts and beginning to create programs that generate jewelry. My hope is to complete most of the programs and come close to test printing using my personal printer. (The programming part is partially done).
Nov. 20 – Dec. 4: Complete and finalize all programs and finish test prints. I want to make sure all my programs print correctly through their test trials before printing them in their finalized form.
Dec 4. – (~Dec. 8): Print the finalized version of the models.