Allan ClaytonM.Arch (Professional)
All projects
A group of silver pendants and a ring whose forms combine solid architectural profiles with open triangulated lattices.

Computational object design

Computational Jewellery

A family of architectural jewellery developed through parametric geometry, 3D-printed patterns and metal casting.

The jewellery family brings solid and lattice geometries into a common material language.

Project record

Date
2020–2022
Context
Independent jewellery design series
Role
Computational design, digital modelling and production development
Outputs
  • Parametric jewellery designs
  • Fabrication-ready geometry
  • Cast pendants and ring
Tools
  • Rhino
  • Grasshopper
  • 3D printing
  • Silver casting

Project

This series brings computational design to the scale of an object worn on the body. I developed the forms in Rhino and Grasshopper, using parametric relationships to control their geometry and produce related variations.

The digital designs were translated into 3D-printed patterns and then cast in metal, most of them in silver. Moving from model to finished object required the geometry to work at a very small scale, where wall thickness, joins, openings and surface finish all have material consequences.

The pieces extend an architectural way of thinking through structure, proportion, iteration and fabrication. The result is not simply a rendered form, but a precisely modelled system carried into a durable physical object.

Greyscale modelling view of a vertical lattice form, its triangulated members breaking into fragments against a black background.
A modelling study, working the lattice toward something castable.

Process

  1. Computational concept development
  2. Parametric modelling and variation
  3. Preparation for 3D printing
  4. Translation into cast metal
A slender silver truss pendant lying on a dark leather desk, its chain running out of frame toward a second pendant behind it.
The truss pendant at rest, the length of a finger joint.
Close view of the silver truss pendant, showing the triangulated web between its top and bottom chords and the tapered points at each end.
The triangulated web, cast at a scale where each member is under a millimetre.
Close view of a silver bar pendant combining solid stepped planes with an exposed internal truss along its underside.
Solid and open geometry resolved in a single cast piece.
A gold-toned pendant on a dark chain, formed as a slender tapering spire of open trusswork rising from a solid squared base, resting on a dark timber table.
A later piece, carrying the same trusswork into a tapering spire.