Doble V Jewelry Collection

My latest project is to design a jewelry collection fabricated with the lost wax casting technique.  My partner and I decided that we wanted to design a unisex collection influenced by the minimalist movement for young people like ourselves. 

Our concept involves two parts: 
1. The arrow, which symbolizes the one-way direction and constant forward flow of life and time. 
2. Yin and yang, which will be embodied in our final collection because all of the pieces come in pairs (one silver and one black) that are stackable.  The silver pieces are yang - energetic and vibrant because of their polished silver finish.  The black pieces are yin - more subtle and withdrawn with a satin finish. 

Above, the rings from my partner's and my Doble V (Double V) jewelry collection are shown directly after casting in silver and brass, along with the original copper rings that we sculpted by hand and used to make the mold for the others.  All of the pieces will be polished and the brass ones given a black patina. 

​Here are some sketches of how our idea evolved on paper before we ever touched a piece of metal or jewelry modeling wax. ​

Once we committed to a final design, we started working on fabrication.  The original for the pendant was made directly in jewelry sculpting wax.:

For the rings, we cut the shape out of a sheet of copper, then filed and sanded it to perfection...

Then we curved it into a ring shape and soldered the joint:

After we had the original, we took it to a professional jewelry casting workshop, where they created a vulcanized rubber mold of the rings so they could make copies in silver and brass, shown below with the copper original:

The process of making the bracelet was similar to the ring, only there was no soldering involved.  Before curving the bracelet original, made in aluminum:

Once we had all of the pieces cast in silver and brass, we used files and sandpaper to give them an even surface, used a soldering torch to fill in air bubbles with silver solder, polished them, and gave the brass ones a black patina by using a chemical oxidizing solution. 

The finished collection:

For more pictures click here!