Jewelry
Read here about jewelry that incorporates, or is inspired by, tensegrity structures.
Overview
Jewelry refers to plastic art used for personal adornment, including brooches, necklaces, earrings, or bracelets.
Examples
6 strut tensegrity ring by Arnold Martin
Arnold Martin creates fantasy rings. He recently posted a photo of a 6 strut tensegrity tension mounted on a ring. For more details, see here.
For information about ring-shaped tensegrities, see torus; for pages with ring-shaped struts see Strut, Ring.
Necklace by Andrew Last
Andrew Last is a jeweler residing in Dunedin, New Zealand [2]. Below are photos of a tensegrity necklace he created. Bill Gonor introduced him to tensegrity, and he set out to make a jewelry version of Snelson's Rainbow Arch. Last wrote: "Mine is a rather poorer version of repeat 3-strut units. It makes me respect Snelson's work all the more. The necklace is made from aluminium struts & stainless steel wire tension elements. I made a neat way of joining those elements, see the top units in the attached photo. The necklace has a catch that allows the chain to be broken & fitted around the neck. The steel wires are solid (not flexible) & each wire has a short 120deg bend either end. In the image, the bottom units show the bent part of the wire hooking into the opening of the aluminum tube. The upper tubes have 4 small slots filed at the end of the tubes. The steel wires hook into 3 of the slots & the projecting (mitred) tabs at the end of the tube are hammered over, closing the tube & locking the wires in place. There is a small amount of movement possible in the connection between the wires & tube. It is a cold connection, not soldered."
See http://kitandcaboodle.ning.com/
The necklace is constructed of 16 iterations of a 3 strut tensegrity. A smaller radius model makes a fine crown.
See http://kitandcaboodle.ning.com/photo/tensegrity-1?context=user
5 x 3 strut necklace by C + R Create
In August 2012 Chelsea Lipham and Richard Colwell of C-and-R-create published a tensegrity concept necklace composed of fishing line and brass tubes. Below are photos from their website, www.candrcreate.com.
See http://www.candrcreate.com/2012/08/07/tensegrity-jewelry/
6 strut bead pendant by Fisher
Gwen Fisher is a bead artist who also publishes on bead topology [4]. In October 2014 Fisher rendered a small 6 strut-based structure with beads. She was inspired by a 6 strut tensegrity composed of six pen tubes, eight hair bands, and twelve bobby pins. The result is a unique creation composed entirely of beaded thread: six bead-delineated struts supported by a surrounding network of beaded thread.
See http://gwenbeads.blogspot.co.il/2014/10/tensegrity-sculpture-with-seed-bead.html
Fisher wrote [3]: It took me several tries to finish with this piece above. I tried first with bugle beads, but my results were quite wonky. Eventually, you see above that I made six separate sticks with cubic right angle weave (CRAW), and I embellished them to stiffen them. Then, with a seventh piece of thread, I assembled the sticks, using tiny seed beads (where the hair bands would be). It turned out to be a lot harder to bead weave this piece than I expected. With the hair bands, the tension balanced everything and the tubes sit in a position of least energy. With seed beads, I was using a number of beads to determine the distance between the ends of the stick. I had to get the counts just right or it would sag when I used too many, or bend out of symmetry when I used too few. I know because I made errors both ways. "Try and see what happens."
Fisher used standard beading thread, since elastic beading thread is cheaply made and does not last as long [5].
Fisher's Bead Website: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/
Links
[1] c-and-r create, [[1]] [2] Andrew Last website, [[2]] [3] Gwen Fisher blog: [[3]] [4] Three-dimensional finite point groups and the symmetry of beaded beads by G. L. Fisher and B. Mellor, Journal for Mathematics and the Arts [5] "There is elastic beading thread but it's cheap and doesn't last." - email October 25, 2014