You can create just about any shape using a 3D printer. But some pieces remain quite challenging. The butterfly is the perfect example. It’s a shape used by jewelry designers throughout history. The challenge isn’t in creating the figure itself but making it unique.
The butterfly can be the perfect shape for expressive designs or as a way to create simple pieces that peak the imagination of consumers.
It’s most famous use is as a brooch. This is where design, art, materials and craftsmanship meet. As a brooch, the only limitations of the butterfly motif are how much time, materials and skill one has. For centuries high jewelry designers have used the wings of a butterfly as a palette to combine colorful gems and diamonds in artistic displays. Among the best modern-day purveyors of this form are JAR and Cindy Chao. Both have the ability to combine several shapes of gems to the overall figure.
Chao’s Royal Butterfly Brooch, on display at the Smithsonian Institute, has a 3-dimensional quality with a rough texture featuring more than 2,300 gems that are layered, making it rich in color. Rough diamond slices stacked atop a pave layer of faceted diamonds form the centerpieces of the wings. Other gems include sapphires, fancy-colored sapphires, color-change sapphires, rubies, diamonds, fancy-colored diamonds, and tsavorite garnets.
JAR’s butterflies are plentiful and each one is unique. Some have wings that sparkle with either colorless diamonds or an array of colorful gems. Some feature gem cutting and setting techniques that are nearly impossible to replicate.
Damiani’s use of butterflies highlights the Italian jeweler’s gold craftsmanship and gem-setting skills. These are often light and airy butterflies that have both movement and sparkle, whether it is used as a simple ring or an elaborate, colorful necklace of interlacing butterflies.
Contemporary Dutch designer Gijs Bakker puts a playful spin on the traditional motif with a candy-colored butterfly. Various colors of corundum are combined with peridot, sapphire, moonstone, agate and glass to create a multilayered, multicolored insect with facial features that include two red eyes and red tips on top of its antennas. On one of its wings, it appears to be holding a colorful umbrella.
In general jewelry use, butterflies appear in every form imaginable. A singular simple butterfly dangling from a chain as a necklace is commonplace. However, some of these pendant necklaces can get quite elaborate with the use of color and texture. There are some with the appearance of stained glass windows. Rings are also commonplace, including a few with moving wings.
The bottom line is that the butterfly is an excellent way to showcase your artistic skills.
Floating Diamond Butterfly Pendant
Butterfly Pendant in Rose Gold and Black Enamel
Dimensional Butterfly Ring in White Gold and Diamonds
Diamond and Gemstone Butterfly Ring
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