making jewelry from your models

[alfedo]

Hi everyone,
first of all I'd like to say that I've never seen so many talented people in one place, work you've been doing is unbelievable :tu: I think that some of you would love not only to be able to see your monsters and beautiful designs on screens of your monitors but it would be really nice if you could touch and even wear your designs. Working as a jeweler for over 28 years I'd like to offer you my help in producing actual jewelry from your own designs. In addition to my bench skills I own and operate CNC which is inexpensive alternative to 3d printers. Imagine making beautiful pendants, key chains, belt buckles, rings etc. from your priceless designs which are sitting on your hard drives doing nothing. Not only you can wear, give your wife, girlfriend or friend your piece of art, but with my help you can start your own line of jewelry and make real profits selling it to jewelry stores or online. Ornamental jewelry is very popular and always in high demand, for example check out this website: http://www.nightriderjewelry.com/ I 'm 100% sure that you can make better jewelry. If you don't know much about jewelry making that's not a problem, I'will answer any of your questions and will assist you in making models, casting, stone setting and any other work that is required. Let me just give you a quick hint, CNC cuts wax under 90 degree angle, so in order for your model to come out right way and not to be expensive make sure that it's 2D, like snown on my sample "cufflinks" picture, basically what you can see from the top cnc will cut. :idea:
Any questions and ideas are welcome
Alex

cuff links.JPG

[SolidSnakexxx]

Very interesting... Wonder how much does it cost for making a ring with ZBrush file submitted.

[alfedo]

Solidsnakexxx to give you price I'd really need to see your model, but from my previous experience rings are $50- $100 for wax model and casting is around $20 - $30 in sterling silver, of course you can make it in gold with diamonds but I can't give you price until I'd know the weight of your model. But since you're the first to reply, I'll give you credit and will cut your first model for FREE, pay just for casting :D I looked at your work and I just can imagine what you can make, it's great! If you need assistance in making ring shank the right size let me know. I can make it even easier for you by making start up simple ring in rhino and exporting obj. file for you to continue working on it in zbrush :eek:
And here's a couple of other simple samples of my work from files

[alfedo]

here's some start up files to make it easier for you, let me know which one you like and I'll send it to you, finger size is 10, if you need different finger size or if you want your start up file different shape or size, just let me know and I'll do what I can:idea:

[Intervain]

woah that'd be a cool thing to have :)

[cherub_rock]

Hi, cool designs, you might wanna chech Wittelsbach here at ZBC, he's also doing this.


Working as a jeweler for over 28 years I'd like to offer you my help in producing actual jewelry from your own designs. In addition to my bench skills I own and operate CNC which is inexpensive alternative to 3d printers. Imagine making beautiful pendants, key chains, belt buckles, rings etc. from your priceless designs which are sitting on your hard drives doing nothing.You stand corrected, we animate them, make money of them, get prizes etc. ;):tu:

[deep]

hey alfedo, why not uploading all tools in one zip file so we can play with them and maybe create something usefull /printble

cheers

[alfedo]

Intervain and Deep, welcome to my world guys, I'm not a Zbrusher but for the last 28 years I do art work in all kind of metals with all kind of stones. This field is new for me (if you don't count CAD CAM that I do in Rhino and Artcam) and I absolutely believe that Zbrush is a perfect tool to make most unusual and beautiful pieces of jewelry, so I'm more than willing to experiment and if any of you will be really interested, maybe this idea will take us farther than just I hobby thing, as I have a jewelry shop and designer retail store in NJ where you could displays your pieces. Regarding rings, I tried to upload ZIP. but it won't allow to upload more than 500kb file and mine is 3mb+ :mad:so if you want these files, send me a private email and I'll email them to you. On My obj. rings you'll need to use "unified skin " before you can sculpt (not that I think you couldn't figure that out on your own):)

[deep]

Thx Alfedo, sending a pm.
U r 5000 miles away from me :eek: :lol: but if i can create something looking good why not using your service thx to DHL world is very small this days :)

thx again
cheers

[Moni-Poroni]

Hi alfedo,
That would be a very cool present for christmas since nobody of my family knows what can be done with Zbrush. Do you have also start up files for keychains?

[alfedo]

if you can post a pencil sketch I'll make any basic shape for you ;)

[alfedo]

here's some ideas of what kind of jewelry can be made. These pieces I've made before I even knew about Zbrush existence .

[deep]

Beautiful jewelleries Alex :tu: can u give us some estimated numbers for designs like "necles 2" and "medusa ring" (without any stones)

[alfedo]

Deep, these two pieces would cost you around $150- $200 each, complite in sterling silver.

[deep]

thx for quick reply :)

[deep]

Hey Alex, your topic inspired me and i made a simple ring :) i dont want to hijack your topic so you can see it here (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=593226)

cheers
t

[DanasArt]

Alfedo, were those faces and flowers done in ArtCam? or did you sculpt those by hand in wax? Just curious since you said that you are just now learning Zbrush.

[alfedo]

some of them wax carved, others Artcam, and even combination of both :o

[TheArchDuke]

VERY INTERESTED! I even have a ring that I designed but I haven't known what to do with it. I'll send you a PM with my email.

[alfedo]

here's another idea for Zbrushers, these viking pendants were hand made, but I think in Zbrush you could make better detailed 3d work. They are made from 18k gold, platinum and set with diamonds :idea::idea::idea:

[alfedo]

my first skull ring in Zbrush, not much details but for the first model I'm satisfied:rolleyes::)

[Disco Stu]

for your first model its not shabby at all:D

[TheSnap]

Hi Alfredo,

I am interested how to get out ZB-models in real world.

Did I understand rigth, you export for example .stl-data and mill it with a cnc-mill in wax for casting?

Do you think, this is a better way than 3D-printing?

As you offered, I would be interested to get a sample file, is your offer still available?

Hope, I´m not too late, because the thread seems a bit old?

Grettings from Germany,

Stephan

[Sigmund Hentze]

Wax prototyping... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx207UXtGxg&feature=related

Anyone have any experience with this machine?

Ziggy

[alfedo]

I saw that machine at the show, and a month later wanted to buy it, but the company support sucks big time, I wasn't able to get neither clear answers or samples from them till now... seems fishy to me :cry:

[Sigmund Hentze]

Hi Alfedo,

Just spotted a company in South Africa that sells these machines, will see what I can find out and pass the info on to you... also want one...

Thanks

[Sigmund Hentze]

Hi Alfedo

Here is a image I have just done for a book cover of one of South Africa old military units.. I was wondering if I set this up as a dog tag type jewelry what would the estimated costs be in say silver and gold?

web_image.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27196936%27,%27web_image.jpg%27, 1,0%29)

If its profitable, i am in contact with their veterans association and other military units associations, could be lucrative...

Regards Ziggy

[lemonnado]

It depends on the volume. The volume will yield the ounces you need. Silver will be a factor less expensive than gold. Rhino and other programs can give you the volume from the dimensions and the model configuration. Sterling silver goes for $22 today per troy ounce and 14Karat Gold for $42 per pennyweight. A pennyweight is 1/20 of a troy ounce. So a troy once of silver goes for $22 (casting grain) and the gold for $840 per troy ounce.

The volume of that depends on the specific weight of gold and silver.
The weight of 1 troy ounce yields a different volume for gold as it does for silver.

It's late and I'm tired, so I leave it to you to fight yourself through the internets and fiddle the ounces and metrics and imperials and what not together.

Making that mold is simple and might cost you $60 for a master mold. You will be able to make a few hundred till that mold is shot.

Having the items made is pretty much the cost of the material and a bit of labor. It depends if simply tumbling is good enough to finish the items or is someone has to work on them. If the later is the case, the hourly charge of the service provider comes into play. A Chinese job shop might charge as little as $4 where a New Jersey Shop must charge about $65 to $95 because of the cost to do business here. Most likely they ship it out as well... Mail to Hong Kong from New York takes 5 days. Back and fourth..... Faster than to LA and back.

Happy making!
Lemo

[sgrell]

Hi Guys,

I would love it you would share some jewelery .objs
I work with a jewelery designer sometimes and ZB is the best for a sculpted piece.

Cheers

Si

http://simongrell.co.uk/

[alfedo]

Hey Ziggy, that's a very well made model, I could cut it from wax for you for $150 and the rest Lemmonado already explained :rolleyes:
Cheers

[katrinabud]

Hi,
I just found this thread. I am in the research/learning curve to determine the real world usability of 3D Cad for jewelry design. i've been a jewelry designer/modelmaker for 35 years and now consult with manufacturers. Your work is very interesting and you seem more able to answer questions that apply to producing usable models. I looked at Wittelsbach's designs- very involved, but the level of cad skills/program knowledge seems overwhelming. Right now i am trying to learn enough to determine what programs would be wise to focus on. I really like the "high touch" interface of ZBrush, but have learned that zbrush does not directly interface with the 3D printers, so another program must be learned (rhino, ?) to translate to smaller, more usable file format and size. I feel like I am feeling my way in the dark, with flashes of light. Any direction, suggestions you can give would be appreciated.

[3dassets]

I come across a website that simplified from model upload to printing and even selling at: http://www.shapeways.com/gallery?mg[search][categories]=23&mg[search][text]=

[katrinabud]

:tu: Thanks for your link,
Actually, it was a look at shapeways a few years ago that got me exploring the 3-D capabilities. i will look again now that I have learned more.