DESIGN NAME: Gabo
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Ring
INSPIRATION: I was inspired by the wish that people experience again the playful side of life. When we are children life is joyful, simple, colorful. We lose all this when we grow up because of the responsibilities that come with adulthood. The magic cube was chosen to represent this wish because of the memories of my son playing with it. He would be so absorbed in the cube movements that nothing disturbed him. Therefore, the Gabo ring is intended to encourage users to find this moment of inner peace by playing with it or simply observing its movements and shape.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Gabo ring encourages the user to play with it by rotating the two modules, the same way it is done with a magic cube. The colors of the gemstones can be lined up to match between the two modules or they can be used mismatched. This matching or mismatching can also be done with the positions of the modules. This way, the user can have different rings everyday by playing with it. The ring conveys a message: bring back the playful side to your life.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The user can interact and play with the ring by rotating the two modules set with colored gemstones. This way, the person can match or mismatch either the gemstone colors set in the top module with the bottom module or the position of the modules. The rotation of the modules gives the nice possibility to the user to have a different ring each time it is used.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in November, 2018 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the desire to create a ring that the user could play with it, resembling a magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube. After some wax and silver models, and many adjustments, the final model was ready by the middle of August, 2019.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: A wax model was printed from the digital 3D model that I drew with CAD and a mold created for casting a silver model. After many prototypes, the ring was casted in gold and polished. The gemstones were set and a pin was inserted into the band and the modules to allow them to rotate. The ring was assembled, the top gold sheet laser welded and the ring was polished again. The casting, assembly, gemstone setting and polishing were done manually. Materials: Metal-18K yellow gold; Brazilian colored gemstones, all square 3mmx3mm- 6 citrines; 6 topazes; 6 green tourmalines, 6 garnets and 12 brilliant cut 1mm-diamonds.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Inner band diameter: 17mm; Band width: 4mm; Modules width with gemstones set: 13mm; Ring total height: 28mm, from bottom of the ring band to top of the cube; Brazilian ring size: 16.
TAGS: jewellery, jewelry, rotating ring, spinner ring, gabo ring, ana piazza, rings, gold, designer jewelry, diamonds
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Children usually choose their toys motivated by their colors and the possibility to change or assemble them in different ways. By observing children playing in the playgrounds and my own son play with his magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube, I found myself challenged to create a piece of jewellery that could bring such contentment to adults, with the same elements of colors and movement.
CHALLENGE: The challenges were to design modules that would not bend over the ring band and to set the colored gemstones very close to each other, with minimal metal appearance between them, in order to resemble a magic cube. Also, the modules had to rotate easily so the user would not have to put any strength. Because of these challenges, I had to make various 3D wax and silver models for testing before casting the final ring in gold.
ADDED DATE: 2019-09-27 14:48:02
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Image #1: Photographer Rafael Coelho, Gabo Main, 2019; Image #2: Photographer Rafael Coelho, Gabo 1, 2019; Image #3: Photographer Rafael Coelho, Gabo 2, 2019; Image #4: Photographer Rafael Coelho, Gabo 3, 2019; Image #5: Photographer Rafael Coelho, Gabo 4, 2019.
Video Credits: Videomaker Rafael Coelho, Gabo ring, 2019 and Video Editing Rafael Costa, Gabo ring, 2019.
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: Copyrights belong to Ana Piazza, 2019
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