Rachel Whitehead

The work at the New Designers Exhibition was of an excellant standard and displayed both the craft element and a design element. A lot of the work in the jewellery and precious metals section was hand crafted but there were a few exhibitors that used  CAD (computer aided design) skills to both design and manufacturer their pieces.  I found this very interesting as I have used these design techniques in my work. One such exhibitor was Rachel Whitehead http://rachelwhitehead.co.uk.

She explores the idea of repetition and patterns from nature. Her work is primarily designed using a computer programme called solidwork, which is used for very detailed designs. Rachels pieces are three dimensional and contain very detailed repeated patterns. These  are created for the wearer to have some interaction with the piece as she incorporates magnets and slotted mechanisms, so the jewellery can be built up with additional components.  She uses a wax rapid prototyper, which prints layers of wax to make up the model. The wax is then used for casting her silver jewellery.  Due to the complexity of her designs it seems they would be very difficult to make them by hand, with the use od CAD/CAM techniques the exploration of these design is limitless.