Friday, April 23, 2010

Digitally Fabricated Armor Jewelry

So the intentions of this piece were to explore having a duality of form, and pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. What is the line that separates the girl who wears her Lord of the Rings cloak to every class, and Alanna Zimmer stomping down the Alexander McQueen Fall 2010 runway wearing essentially an intricate breastplate? The goal was to construct a sleeve of armor that can be taken apart the separate pieces worn as jewelry.


Here's the finished chain mail concept jewelry, I'm still modeling the armor part, I made one but it was too delicate so some of the plastic melted off in the acid bath. When you 3D print objects, the printer surrounds them with support material you can dissolve in acid in order to achieve your exact shape. Unfortunately if your lines are too thin, it happens to your model too.

Here's the model and failed part one


Here is the final version, I made the lines in the model a little thicker, they lost a little of the grace and ethereal qualities of the first, but it is also significantly more stable, so there must be some trade offs. I constructed the straps out of a soft suede shammy, laser cut and braided. Each bangle comes in an increasingly larger size, so they can be stacked as armored plates down the arm, or worn individually.


No comments:

Post a Comment

c'mon hit me again