We are now a couple days into the
BAD ( Brooch A Day) challenge and it has been fun so far. It is really liberating to think outside of the "ring making box". Brooches seems to offer lot's of design freedom. It's all very playful so far. I am trying to use the blogging as a way to keep a journal of the process. So bare with me if this gets a bit technical at times.
To dive into learning Grasshopper software I watched lot's of video tutorials to get familiar with the possibilities it offers. The first week was all about rosette designs.
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| Wax models of week one rosette designs, CNC milled |
I followed a
video tutorial that outlines the grasshopper definition setup for rosette creation.
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| Grasshopper definition |
By switching the geometry shape of the item that gets rotated and scaled, it generates lot's of different designs from the same base definition. Playing with the sliders was really fun. I love watching how the designs evolve dramatically when certain variables change.
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| Variations of a rosette by deleting certain elements and changing the depth. |
The first 2 rosette designs where done by rotating a elliptical solid and down scaling it towards the center. Once the right rotation,
density and scale factors were found, I took that into Rhino and started to manipulate it further. To test it I also milled those designs in wax on my CMC mill. Ultimately the designs will be sent out for 3d printing in stainless steel. But since I have a mill I can at least do a test the same day to check the design. It's somewhat easier to evaluate a design if I can see and feel it. Just judging from renderings can lead to some surprises.
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| Single layer rosette, CNC milled wax, can be cast in silver |
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| Double layer rosette, CNC milled wax |
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| Rendering of double layer rosette with added brooch pin |
The next 2 designs used a circular shape instead of the elliptical. The look is very different. The difference between those 2 are just changing the radial density from 9 circles around the center to 15.
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| Rendering |
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| CNC milled wax models |
Next day I started to play with some pyramid shapes.
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| Testing settings in Rhino and Grasshopper |
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| 2 designs, same 5 sides pyramid as a base shape but changing the rotation of the shape around the pyramid center axis yields a different design |
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| CNC milled wax model. The first test model had very thin areas in those valleys that would not print and even brake during casting. |
Day six was a fun one! It crashed my computer a couple times. But it finally worked, well virtually. The base shape was a weird morphed shape that looked like a crippled joy stick. Once used in the definitions it created some wonderful shapes and reliefs.
The rosette looked like a sea anemone and was quite complex. It can only really be 3D printed as it has undercuts. The wax model I milled just does not have the same detail. Unfortunately for the stainless steel it's too filigrane and it got rejected by Shapeways. It can probaly only printed in the high-res plastics. So no steel version of this one :(
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| "Sea Anemone" rosette wax model, CNC milled |
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| Rendering, even the back has a interesting texture. If the rosette would be stainless steel using a magnet pin would allow to show off both sides. |
Next day a slightly different base shape than the eliptical one from day one and 2. This series shows how playing with the sliders is a great way to get different designs very quickly. The only difference is the rotation of the shape.
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| Rendering |
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| CNC milled wax model |
Once I get the 3D printed steel models I can just weld or solder some pin findings to the back to make them into wearable brooches. I also thought using a magnet would be fun as then the steel rosettes can be worn 2 sided. Some have a really interesting texture in the back that ought be be shown off.
I fabricated this little magnet pin out of textured and oxidized sterling silver with a pin clutch. The final version should be made out of 3D printed steel. The strong magnet was from the hardware store.
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| Day 8 brooch: Magnet pin |
It's a very handy tool that I will keep pinned to my apron as I can use it to clean out the broken saw blades out of my previous metal filings in the bench drawer.
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| Day 8: Broken Saw Blade Pin Brooch |
Those were the first 8 days.
The last 2 days of the challenge I used some found objects and make them into brooches.
I am waiting for my new PC to arrive on Friday to start with a new
Grasshopper definition. Little spoiler: there will be some bees or wasps
involved in the new design.
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