Body as Site: Jewelry Design as Architecture

1.5 units

In this course, students will undertake a 3D printing and casting process to realize an architecturally conceived set of jewelry in metal and create drawings and renderings of this set. Often, metal 3D printed parts are used as industrial components and engineered mechanical parts. This project will reverse that to create delicate objects that engage with skin. Students will create a parure (a set of related pieces of jewelry) that will examine the human body as an architectural site and test the potential of metal 3D printing in architecture. We will use Autodesk Maya to create hyper-articulated surfaces and employ lost wax and lost plastic metal casting, consequently blurring the line between traditional and contemporary techniques. As a result, we will not simply conceive of a project and outsource its production. Instead, we will use the foundry to provide firsthand experience with material processes. The set of pieces will share characteristics of form and geometry as well as tactics of physical interconnection with the human body, adjusting through site-specific responses to finger, wrist, neck, ear, or head. In addition to a set of renderings and drawings, students will produce wax hand-carved models and 3D-printed plastic objects for lost plastic casting. For artifacts that require fine detail, students will outsource their projects to wax 3D-printing and casting facilities. (Outsourcing for a typical ring costs approximately $15 in steel and $35 in silver. Total course costs are estimated to be $100.)