This example shows how Janet's ring was made using CADCAM.
I designed a number of rings with CAD and sent Janet renderings of the rings from different angles. Designing and making a piece with CAD means that both the person comissioning the piece and I can see exactly how the final piece will look. We have agreed on the precise dimensions of the piece and the renderings give us a good feel for how well the choice of metal and stones will work together.
Once we had finalised the design, the CAD file was e-mailed to a casting company (www.nf-castings.co.uk) who milled my design from wax.
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| CAD Rendering |
Milling Centre section |
Finished centre section |
From this milled wax model they produced a one-off cast of the design in 18k White gold.
I was very keen that in casting this piece we didn't forfeit the crisp high quality finish achievable with a completely hand fabricated piece. For this reason the ring was milled and cast in three pieces (the two sides and the centre section) and I then hand polished and soldered the pieces together.
The final result is as good as if it had been fabricated from scratch, and the time saving meant that the ring became far more affordable than if it had been completely hand made.
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| Milled waxes ready for casting |
18k castings |
Finished ring |
