The number of artisans involved in 3D printed jewellery making continues to grow. Rob Drummand, also known as Vertigo Polka, has a collection as cool as his name. A freelance designer and production artist, Vertigo has been producing three dimensional modelling work for a few decades. He has now progressed to 3D printing his art and craft work as jewellery, purses, math art and ceramics which he says is ‘fun, exciting and terribly addicting!’ Now, Mr. Drummand has introduced two new ranges to his jewellery collection: Fleuries and Little Knothings pendants — and variants upon four new materials: brass, bronze, gold and platinum.
Bold breadths of line, simple iterations of complex geometry combined with a sophisticated intricacy mark the majority of Rob Drummands’ jewellery work. Some are quite culturally alternative, accessing a codified range of forms that reflect lateral thinking upon stereotypical shapes that embody femininity: such as ‘Spiked Earrings,’ ‘Twirldrop Earrings,’ and ‘Starry Earrings’ — non-conformist, experimental and pseudo-masculine. Punk, even. Elsewhere ‘Octotoad Pendant in Stainless Steel,’ and ‘Dodecahedron in Stainless Steel’ example works that again swim against the tide of stereotypes with their heavy weighing and base geometry, yet perform in the beauty stakes. Intellectual rock’n’roll.
Skipping to the other end of the spectrum of available motifs, ‘XPiral Ring in Stainless Steel’ shows a deep, deep understanding by feeling. Here the artist excells, balancing a vast range of creative considerations, whilst expressing heart. This is a piece that you could marry, take on a honeymoon, come back and fall in love with all over again when you are 72. Not punk. Not rock’n’roll. Just lovely.
The name ‘Stretchy Twisty Bracelets’ is perhaps enough alone to make a person smile. The bracelets themselves are, well, stretchy and, you guessed it, twisty. They do exactly what they say on the tin. And what we are getting to here is the stylistic breadth within Rob’s work. That’s counter to my first reactions: ‘another lot of math art, interesting, pretty, but we’ve seen it all before.’ How wrong initial reactions can be.
And that is perhaps one of the elements that works the best in this collection: look twice. As with most jewelry, it is there to not just express personality, not just express a mood, a look, a fashion, but to hold attention. Yours, his, whomever’s. And this is a set of work that fulfills its calling. 3D printing does wonders for a form that cannot be produced by any other digital means: ‘3/5 Torus Knot Pendant’ and ‘Quadrefoil Knot Pendant’ example this. That said, I don’t like these two — but then, I won’t be wearing them. Plus I’m not here to sell these works of art. They do that for themselves.
For your ease, the full 3DPI article archives for: Math art, math art jewelry.
