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CAD for Jewelers

Explore new possibilities for your jewelry making with Computer Aided Design (CAD)! In this 5-day course, students will learn the fundamentals for designing objects using CAD and 3D modeling. This type of digital modeling enables makers to take advantage of many useful and exciting technologies that exist, like 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser cutting and etching. Find out how limitless your imagination is when designing in the digital realm. 

Joe Wood will provide participants with step-by-step instructions and tutorials that will get them making rings, bracelets, chain links and other jewelry forms. Using Rhino CAD software, students will learn how to design solid objects in the 3D digital space, render the objects, and finally how to save their information and convert it for different applications. The class will discuss the various possibilities for prototyping and production that jewelers can explore using these modern skills. 

No experience is necessary but a good working knowledge of computers is necessary, and any prior experience with design software (like Photoshop) is very helpful. 

Please note: A Mac or PC laptop that has at least 2 GB of space and a 3-button mouse (that's left, right and a scroll wheel in the middle) is required. It is recommended that interested students look at the system requirements for this software before signing up for this course. You can find that information here: https://www.rhino3d.com/system_requirements/

Meet the instructor

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Currently Professor Emeritus teaching part-time at MassArt in Fine Arts 3D, Jewelry & Metals at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA. Joe has been teaching jewelry, metalsmithing, computer techniques for object-makers and other classes at since 1985.

 

 

Notable symposia and conference events include Questions of Context, Legacies, The Ring, ContacT,Connections and Parallax.

 

 

 

 

Lectures and workshops have been at The Royal College of Art in London, Silpakorn University in Bangkok Thailand, Haystack, Penland, Arrowmont, Seattle Metals Guild and other places.

 

 

 

 

Exhibitions of work include Schmuck 2001, Munich Germany, Signals: Late 20th Century American Jewelry, Cranbrook Museum of Art.

 

 

 

 

Work is in the public collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, The Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine WI and the Daphne Farago Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA.

 

 

 

 

Widely published in catalogs, books and magazine articles.

 

 

Materials & Tools

There is no materials fee for this course.

Students must furnish their own laptop computers and download the appropriate software to participate. A Mac or PC laptop that has at least 2 GB of space and a 3-button mouse (that's left, right and a scroll wheel in the middle) is required. It is recommended that interested students look at the system requirements for this software before signing up for this course. You can find that information here: https://www.rhino3d.com/system_requirements/

 

Students should bring

A Mac or PC laptop that has at least 2 GB of space and a 3-button mouse (that's left, right and a scroll wheel in the middle) is required. 

Students must download Rhino CAD software to their computers prior to class. A FREE 90 day trial of the full Mac and PC versions of this software is available here: https://www.rhino3d.com/download

 

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