Woo hoo! Summerized jewelry is now available at Fiat Lux, a great little boutique in the Mission/Castro neighborhood. Fiat Lux is gem-like little store, with a very well curated selection of local designs. My jewelry is in great company.
Fiat Lux is located at 218 Church Street, between Market and 15th.
My new diamond pendant is on sale there too! Here's a quick snapshot of it. I'll get a better one up soon.
A little late blogging my costume...
So I put the Mutant Crystal prototypes on chains, in a very temporary fashion. I wanted to see how they worked as pendants. Honestly, in person, the large scale is a little too Flavor Flav. But only a little.
And as Meredith pointed out, the pendant should have a "back," and that back should be flat so it can lay comfortably against the skin. I'm excited to rework this a bit, and to wear it!
I've been playing in Rhino with some forms reminiscent of the Flower of Life, or Seed of Life -- thinking about how these translate into three dimensions. They're still in progress, but I think the wireframes are interesting. My diamond earring is in the file to help me keep scale in mind.
Recently, I was chatting with Mark Bloomfield, the founder of Electrobloom, on the Shapeways forum. He's got a great new product -- 3d printed jewelry in flower designs that are customizable with attachable charms. It's a really fun idea that has lots of possibility for expansion.
I've been preparing to approach some retailers with my Diamond Wireframe Earrings, as well as some other new designs. One part of this is to find a reliable way to get the earrings assembled. I dropped some components (my 3d printed designs, plus the findings) off to a woman at a local bead and jewelry shop, for her to put together. I picked them up last week, and she'd had trouble putting them together, because of the (apparently) too-small holes in my designs, and the janky jumprings I'd gotten from one of the major online shops for hobbyist beaders.
I increased the size of the holes in the 3d printed designs, so the earrings will be easier to assemble.
Also, she thought the quality of my findings (hardware) wasn't great in general. I agreed; the gold-plated hooks I've been wearing a while have worn down to their original silver color -- not good. Also, the jumprings look sloppy and badly cut. But I wasn't sure where to find better findings.
Meredith to the rescue! Meredith and I went to Cranbrook together; she studied Metals there, creating amazing conceptual pieces, and worked as an expert metalsmith and jeweler for years. She recommended Rio Grande as selling high quality components for professional jewelers. I placed an order and am interested to see if the quality looks better. The price is certainly higher, as I'm ordering sterling silver and gold filled, rather than silver or gold plated. But I really want to make a premium product that people can wear and enjoy for a long time.
If anyone else knows of a great source of findings, I'd love to hear about it.
Hooray! I won a month-long premium subscription to Lynda.com from Ponoko. Sounds like the perfect way to improve my Rhino skills, and try out Ponoko's Personal Factory.
Before the holidays, I visited Alysha at HP Labs. Her building is home to Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's corporate offices, which are kept in their original state for visitors to see.
The offices are quintessentially modernist, and huge. There is even a little Japanese garden outside sliding doors. The furniture and linoleum floors took me back to 60's-style bank interiors I saw as a little kid, doing errands with my mom. As did this wood paneling and wall clock.
The offices are open for viewing by the public I think; there were some Japanese tourists viewing them when I was there. They're a great addition to a tour of Silicon Valley fabulousness and geekery.
Now I know where to do my photoshoot to enter the Mad Men casting call!
A couple weeks ago, I had just gotten some orders for black Wireframe Diamond Earrings. I was worried I wouldn't be able to fulfill the orders in time -- my incoming order of black diamonds was late, because the machine my usual supplier uses to make them was down.
So I ordered some diamonds from Moddler, a small 3-D printing shop located right in San Francisco. Moddler's price per diamond is quite a bit more than my usual supplier's, but he can produce an identical product in 2 days! And I can just hop onto Muni to pick them up -– which is quite an advantage when you have a deadline.
Moddler is located in a nice brick warehousey building. John, the owner, is very friendly and helpful, and makes sure every piece is perfect -- a one person business makes for great quality control.
As you can see, in the photo above, much of Moddler's business appears to be printing of avatars.
The space has great light.
You can see his 3D printer in the background here.
Printing with Moddler was a really good experience, and I would do it again.
