Jewelry designing: turn paper art to metal

Look at these breath-taking paper sculptures, imagine achieving something like that with metal…

Richard Sweeney is a master at sculpting paper art.

His unique talent at manipulating paper and experimenting with it in incredible ways makes his work astonishing and particularly interesting for jewelers.

The actual shaping of the paper is done by hand, but Sweeney also uses a computer to draw dimensional layouts, which are then folded and shaped by hand to create three-dimensional forms.

He says that:

“Any form imaginable can be rendered through drawing, but when modeling in paper, an object has to be physically shaped. When faced with a flat sheet of material, there is no obvious indication of how it can be manipulated into a three dimensional object.

The limitations of paper as a form making material offer a challenge, which through playful investigation results in tangible models. Physical models provide a better indication of proportion and construction that drawing alone, bringing material to the forefront of the design process”.

You could experiment as well with your primary material: sheet metal.

Sweeney explores material, structure and patterns in his paper sculptures.

He’s inspired by complex geometries and patterns of growth in nature.

“It is not so much the organic shapes, but the means by which they are generated that interests me.

It makes great sense to borrow elements from biological structures, as these forms demonstrate the pinnacle of material, structural and functional efficiency”.

Paper forms finely crafted into sculptural pieces, how about jewelry designing with these ideas. Take advantage of metal´s malleability, and try folding, forging and shaping sheet metal to fantastic shapes like these.

Richard, thank you for sharing your work! You can see more of his beautiful paper art at www.richardsweeney.co.uk

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