Digital Meets Handmade

Book excerpt: Over the past twenty years, a seismic shift has occurred in jewelry design and manufacturing. As digital design, digital model-making, and prototyping have elbowed their way into common practice, they have proven themselves to be both invaluable and disruptive to the jewelry profession. Bringing together the perspectives of artisans, educators, students, mavens from the realm of fine jewelry, renegades from the Wild West of the maker movement, and innovators from the digital engineering sector, Digital Meets Handmade addresses a wide range of topics in jewelry design, delving into the broad conversation around how digital technologies and virtuoso handcraft can coalesce in jewelry as wearable art. While one might expect a collision of cultures—"fine jewelry" craftspeople versus digital engineers—the result instead is a dazzling array of critical thinking, with stunning illustrations that foretell the future of jewelry.