3d Printers, CAD, and custom Jewelry

By Monalisa Jewelers - This is not made with a 3d printer.

The other night I had dinner with a friend of mine, Arman, who is an extremely skilled and talented jeweler. He is the owner of Mona Lisa Jewelers Custom Handmade Jewelry in downtown Boston. Arman began working as an artisan in Turkey when he was 12 years old.

I told him about the two day teachers workshop I've helped to organize. Arman told me that 3D printing and CAD (Computer Aided Design) is all the rage these days in the custom jewelry business. (by the way the photo above is NOT made by a 3d printer).

One of the more common ways to design metal pieces is to carve a model out of wax. This is then used to create a mold which is then used to cast the piece out of metal. Nowadays, many jewelers and designers are designing models on the computer using CAD software. The 3D model is then output on a 3D printer. One of the limitations of most lower cost 3D printers are that they only print plastic. This is not a problem for jewelers because the plastic model is used to create the mold for casting.

Who remembers the first Apple Quicktake Digital Camera (originally released in 1994)? Similar to digital photography, another limitation with low cost 3D printers is resolution. Again, like digital photography this is quickly becoming less and less an issue as the quality of 3D printers improve.

Currently, desktop 3D printers are around 300 dpi. This is good enough for Rapid Prototyping, but NOT for jewelry. Part of some of the work Arman is commissioned to do these days is cleaning up metal pieces that have been cast from 3D printed models. Often, these metal pieces have a "stipled" surface that Arman has to clean up and polish.

Lately, Shapeways.com has been getting a great deal of attention. Shapeways is an online service where users upload 3D designs to the Shapeways website and the user receives a 3D print of their model in the mail. Unlike your typical desktop 3D printers, Shapeways will print models in various materials including stainless steel, sterling silver, gold, ceramic and various kinds of plastic. I plan to write a post specifically about Shapeways.

Although Arman is not interested in moving into this digital realm, he does not seem to be threatened by this development. Arman tells me that because it is often the case that non-jewelers and amateurs are creating these models, poor judgement and lack of experience are creating new kinds of problem solving work for Arman to deal with. If a skilled and experienced jeweler were to be consulted earlier, many problems could be avoided. It is clear, that Arman's experience and skills will never be eclipsed by this digital development.