I first met Silvia Weidenbach quite by chance at TCT 2011, where she was a visitor. She came onto the stand of 3DDC Limited, while I was catching up with Andy Allshorn, a long time friend and a Director of that company. Silvia came to the stand with a purpose; as a designer of original 3D printed jewellery, she was looking into the potential of getting her creations metal plated and the Metalise it… process interested her. Once she was in receipt of the information she needed I pretty much accosted her because the piece she had in her hand intrigued me. We got chatting and I asked her if she would be interested in presenting her work — a great application of 3D printing — at TCT the following year. She agreed, and a fascinating presentation it was too back in September at the NEC.
So it was a delight to catch up with Silvia again at the 3D Printshow in London last week and to have the time to find out more about her most recent collaboration and to meet Tobias Klein a celebrated architect with a keen interest in the relationship between architecture and the fields of art and installation, experimental design, interactivity and sculpture. Both Tobias’ and Silvia use 3D printing as an enabling production technique for their work and the Weidenbach / Klein collaboration is based on a fascinating premise — the relationship between Jewellery/Art and Art/Architecture.
Silvia and Tobias first met in London 2011 and immediately there was a fascination and understanding about each other’s work in terms of the small scale versus large scale. The natural progression was to join two creative heads — and their different skills — to create something new. In partnership they set out to the test, combine and collaborate within a unique setting — pushing the envelope of both professions via the medium of 3D technology to create a new and modified unique aesthetical vision in terms of physical forms and compositions.
Silvia’s take on this is that, “by combining our skills for this collaboration with a shared and deep-rooted curiosity to understand new technologies we can push the design and manufacture of each piece to the limit.”
Tobias added, “There is a power, a vibe, a curiosity, the enjoyment of making and the fascination for the bizarre and the exotic, which lead us to define these as the values of our collaboration with a focus on adornment, the human body as a resource and inspiration together with applied art.”
Some of Tobias’ and Silvia’s individual works are highlighted here, together with some of the early productions from their collaboration.
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