A FIREY RING

Lee Krombholz—who nabbed second-place in the AVAs for his 18k white gold “Flame” ring, which features an 11.82 carat peridot center and diamond accents—is a third-generation jeweler with a background in traditional forms of jewelry manufacturing. He started exploring CAD about four years ago and has since experimented with several programs. His current favorite is Gemvision’s Matrix, which he describes as a flexible program developed by a company that is committed to improving it.

Krombholz began earnestly using CAD in his business in 2004, producing about half of his custom pieces with this technology. In 2005, his custom business doubled and CAD generated 98 percent of his designs. “A lot of what I do in CAD, at least 50 percent of it now, would be too cost-prohibitive to do by hand,” he says, adding that the software enables him to make pieces larger and lighter because he can be more precise in metal thickness. “CAD saves time and money, and in-creases customer satisfaction,” he adds. “It’s a lot less of a leap of faith for people to see the design in various stages, and it’s a lot quicker to produce.” Krombholz credits CAD for freeing his way of thinking. “My designs are completely different than before I used CAD,” he says. “It’s more of a stylistic thing. With traditional methods, my designs were simpler, more sculptural and organic, not so symmetrical. There’s something very balanced about CAD designs; the aesthetics are easy on the eye.”

To maintain a hand-forged feel in his CAD pieces, Krombholz will often handwork a piece after it is cast. For example, he engraved and set diamonds in his award-winning ring. He notes that his ring is uncharacteristic of CAD because of its curved design elements. Krombholz believes the strength of CAD lies in its ability to reproduce in 3-D quadrants, and describes using CAD as an individual experience. “It’s not that this design was a particularly difficult way to create this ring, just a different way of approaching it,” he says. “In CAD there are ways of achieving any design you can think up. Part of the challenge is to figure out which way will work the best.”

Krombholz had the model for this piece produced by the Viper, an RP system that grows a laser-cured resin model through the process of stereolithography. “The decision on what CAM process to use is based on the degree of detail you wish to achieve,” he explains. “A Viper is very precise and produces a smooth, detailed surface. After the piece is cast, you have less waste and less time in finishing the object. The only downside to the process is that the material it produces is more difficult to adapt in wax carving and build up by hand. You can do some filing and finishing to this material, but it’s somewhat brittle. That’s one reason why I enhanced the metal after it was cast.” The output material Krombholz generally uses—which comes from the InVision 3-D printer—is more similar to wax. Krombholz rates the biggest challenge in working with CAD to be perceiving actual scale. “When it comes to working with wax, you have something in hand that you can see,” he explains. “It’s hard to relate to what millimeters equate to on a grid that you zoom in and out on. That has been a big learning curve for me.”

On the other hand, the biggest advantage in using CAD/CAM for Krombholz has been in customer communication. “I’m not in the design business, I’m in the customer satisfaction business,” he says. “Ninety percent of what I do is commission work. CAD helps me create satisfied customers in that they can see the finished product in the rendering process. I can create designs in a relatively short amount of time that look like high quality photographs, to help them visualize the piece. I can easily change the design and produce a model inexpensively through CAM. What would take a couple of weeks to do with traditional methods now takes only a couple of days.” A Firey Ring Lee Krombholz—who nabbed second-place in the AVAs for his 18k white gold “Flame” ring, which features an 11.82 carat peridot center and diamond accents—is a third-generation jeweler with a background in traditional forms of jewelry manufacturing. He started exploring CAD about four years ago and has since experimented with several programs. His current favorite is Gemvision’s Matrix, which he describes as a flexible program developed by a company that is committed to improving it.

Krombholz began earnestly using CAD in his business in 2004, producing about half of his custom pieces with this technology. In 2005, his custom business doubled and CAD generated 98 percent of his designs. “A lot of what I do in CAD, at least 50 percent of it now, would be too cost-prohibitive to do by hand,” he says, adding that the software enables him to make pieces larger and lighter because he can be more precise in metal thickness. “CAD saves time and money, and in-creases customer satisfaction,” he adds. “It’s a lot less of a leap of faith for people to see the design in various stages, and it’s a lot quicker to produce.” Krombholz credits CAD for freeing his way of thinking. “My designs are completely different than before I used CAD,” he says. “It’s more of a stylistic thing. With traditional methods, my designs were simpler, more sculptural and organic, not so symmetrical. There’s something very balanced about CAD designs; the aesthetics are easy on the eye.”

To maintain a hand-forged feel in his CAD pieces, Krombholz will often handwork a piece after it is cast. For example, he engraved and set diamonds in his award-winning ring. He notes that his ring is uncharacteristic of CAD because of its curved design elements. Krombholz believes the strength of CAD lies in its ability to reproduce in 3-D quadrants, and describes using CAD as an individual experience. “It’s not that this design was a particularly difficult way to create this ring, just a different way of approaching it,” he says. “In CAD there are ways of achieving any design you can think up. Part of the challenge is to figure out which way will work the best.”

Krombholz had the model for this piece produced by the Viper, an RP system that grows a laser-cured resin model through the process of stereolithography. “The decision on what CAM process to use is based on the degree of detail you wish to achieve,” he explains. “A Viper is very precise and produces a smooth, detailed surface. After the piece is cast, you have less waste and less time in finishing the object. The only downside to the process is that the material it produces is more difficult to adapt in wax carving and build up by hand. You can do some filing and finishing to this material, but it’s somewhat brittle. That’s one reason why I enhanced the metal after it was cast.” The output material Krombholz generally uses—which comes from the InVision 3-D printer—is more similar to wax. Krombholz rates the biggest challenge in working with CAD to be perceiving actual scale. “When it comes to working with wax, you have something in hand that you can see,” he explains. “It’s hard to relate to what millimeters equate to on a grid that you zoom in and out on. That has been a big learning curve for me.”

On the other hand, the biggest advantage in using CAD/CAM for Krombholz has been in customer communication. “I’m not in the design business, I’m in the customer satisfaction business,” he says. “Ninety percent of what I do is commission work. CAD helps me create satisfied customers in that they can see the finished product in the rendering process. I can create designs in a relatively short amount of time that look like high quality photographs, to help them visualize the piece. I can easily change the design and produce a model inexpensively through CAM. What would take a couple of weeks to do with traditional methods now takes only a couple of days.”

1. Using Matrix, Krombholz began by creating a rough outer shape in the proper scale to the center gemstone. Next, he drew a curve on the surface and began to mirror it to the opposite side to get a feel for how the design would look.

2. He exploded the rough object to isolate just the outside top half. He then split the surface by the curve and began to delete the areas to be pierced.

3. He isolated just the one desired surface, then duplicated it 1 mm toward the center, careful to retain the outer curve on this surface so he could use it to create a connecting surface.

4. With the 1 mm thick section constructed, he mirrored it on the opposite side. He continued the same procedure on the other sections of the design.

5. He continued to build the ring by creating depth out of the surface layers. When all of the sections were made, the model was finished.

6. The ring rendered in metal and gemstone, prior to hand work.

The winners of the 2006 AVA CAD/CAM honors (sponsored by Gemvision in Davenport, Iowa) will be announced with the other AVA winners during Designer Day, March 11, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. For more information, call Suzanne Mascena at 1-800-444-6572, ext. 3041.