Printing a Statment Piece - Outsourced Wearable Object

For the wearable outsourced object my ring design was based on geometric shapes and the formations found in pyrite. I started off with some basic intersecting cubes and then expanded on them to create a large intersecting frame around the basic ring design. The ring itself is made up of three rings the outer too rotated away from the center to support and contain the rest of the design.

Below is the proof sheet for the three options for the rings as well as some images of sketches and the six rings options I started with.

Some doodles of ring ideas, I was trying to incorporate shapes inspired by nature, bubbles and petals and such. 

On the left is my proof sheet, the first ring is inspired by the patterns found in coral, the second is inspired by the cube formations found in pyrite (fools gold), and the last is a mountainscape (because I love mountains). 

The coral inspired ring.

This started off as a fern or tree shape that was then flowed around the ring.

This one was a basic ring of three intersecting circles.

This is the cube/pyrite inspired ring.

This is the mountainscape ring. 

This is another mountain inspired option. 

The feedback from the peer-to-peer discussion was that all three of my concepts reminded them of organic shapes and while my peers seemed to lean towards either the coral-inspired ring or the mountainscape one I decided to work with the one that incorporated cube shapes because I could see a way to expand it into a more interesting cocktail ring. We discussed what that might look like and I got some good feedback on ways to expand the ring, such as incorporating some organic shapes into the expanded geometric shapes and to consider how the connections for the thinner struts could be made stronger by increasing the contact surface area between parts. 

Jeruel suggested looking at Bismuth crystals as well as pyrite as they could produce some interesting geometric shapes as well. 

Carmen suggested incorporating organic shapes and suggested I look at the Loie Fuller, and art Nouveau, designs for stylized organic shapes. 

Blake talked about the connection points and the practicalities of working with the metal as well as options for incorporating different metals (but we gave up on that idea when Blake realized I have no idea how to connect metal together!)

Image of Loie Fuller dancing, the shape of my coral-inspired ring reminded Carmen of Fuller's work.
From Artsy website https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-loie-fuller-pioneering-dancer-brought-art-nouveau-life

Bismut Crystal From Etsy website
 https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/676568456/one-1-xl-pink-gold-bismuth-crystal?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_ca_en_ca_ps-d-home_and_living-home_decor-rocks_and_geodes&utm_custom1=0aeed5b9-2369-42ab-bade-e0d7ebac0d28&utm_content=go_1773436688_68936565837_343023245013_pla-302796601822_c__676568456enca&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1-ie4YPh5QIVxRd9Ch2afAveEAQYBCABEgJ0ZvD_BwE

Pyrite that inspired the cube ring. Image from Mardini Fine Minerals websitehttps://mardanifineminerals.com/minerals/pyrite-06646/

Below are some sketches of ideas for moving forward with the cube ring:

Adding the extensions to the ring turned out to be a big challenge that required a lot of rebuilding of surfaces and manual surface modelling because the shapes were not planar, but I wanted the struts to overlap and intersect. I used the shell tool but still had to rebuild surfaces and in the end lofted the upper form onto the area of the ring I wanted it to meet in order to have the edges of the struts line up with each other/the ring.

The renders for the final ring design:

So I had to make several adjustments to the ring design to increase the wall thickness in places after bringing the design into the shapeways 3D tools. I still have some areas that show up a bit thin in the heatmap, but I believe they will be alright because the areas that show up red are supported in two places. 

So that is all for this post, it's ready to print! I am going to order it in a matte black steel I think it will be a neat piece, if not the most convenient to wear. I am also planning to order the smaller un-extended version of the ring, I am really looking forward to seeing how they turn out!☺