– Orlando

July 2011

 

 

 

“Orlando” is a notional jewellery concept; a ring or similar artefact for contemplation.  The name of the piece references Virginia Wolf’s semi-autobiographical work “Orlando: A Biography”.

The swept form of the ring blends two ubiquitous gender symbols, visually depicting the metamorphosis of a person, from one sex to another – as in Wolf’s story –  as well as the switching of traditional gender roles.

The ring, synonymous in jewellery with notions of eternity, love and relationships, oppulence, etc… holds further connotations with the tale of Orlando, who’s life (though not eternal) spanned four centuries and was not devoid of either heartache nor material priveledge.  …but these design details are mostly co-incidental.

 

 

Digitally rendered here in Gold, the ring has been designed almost exclusively in a CAD environment and prototyped in ABS plastic using a Dimension BST 3D printer.  I would like to cast the plastic part in precious metal, but only so that I might learn a litte more about these processes in doing so.

 

 

This project represents a fairly flippant thought-experiment and not a serious concern.  Admittedly, this piece began as an experiment in exploiting the unique form-generating capabilities of CAD software by blending two “opposite”  profiles together to create a new single object.  A fairly common – though always rather intriguing – sight prevalent in the world of Design/Art projects utilising CAD and Rapid Prototyping: e.g. Geoffrey Mann’s “Long Exposure Series”

http://www.mrmann.co.uk/long-exposure-series-attracted-to-light

 

I have never even read the book …but I have watched the excellent 1992 movie starring Tilda Swinton.

 

 

 

I thought the piece rendered above – a tactile black rubber coated ring with gold profile sections – would result in rather sensuous juxtapositions of colour, texture and temperature.

 

3D Printed prototype