Jewelry design and manufacturing techniques in digital environment

Jewelry is a part of human beings that has an emotional and symbolic function for centuries. Therefore, it has become an indispensable accessory of people. As in every field, throughout the historical process, the design, materials used and production techniques in jewelry show continuous improvement. With the increasing competition in today's jewelry industry, new, original and creative designs are needed. Precious metals and precious stones are no longer used by people for investment purposes and have turned into an object that complements the aesthetics displayed on the body. With the demands of innovative design in jewelry, the supply has been created and the importance of design has increased. For this reason, design and production must be fast and flawless in the jewelery industry where there is competition. In jewelry produced with traditional production method, errors are seen both because it takes a lot of time and because it is handcrafted. In the last 15 years, jewelry design and production techniques have changed with the development of technology and the formation of the digital environment of the computer. The designs are modeled in the computer aided jewelry design program. By transferring the digital data of the model to rapid prototyping technologies, a three-dimensional model is obtained. In this study, the information in the literature is scanned and the development of jewelry in the historical process is explained and the effects of the digital environment on design are examined. JewelCAD, Rhinoceros, Matrix, Zbrush programs that help to design jewelry in the digital environment of the computer are explained. Rapid prototype production technologies such as SLA (Stereolithography), FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), SLS/SLM (Selective Laser Sintering/Selective Laser Modeling) and MJM (Multi Jet Modeling) have their place in jewelry. A jewelry model is created in the Matrix program, and the production process is observed with MJM rapid prototype technology. Keywords: Computer Aided Design, Rapid Prototyping, Digital Media