Wabi Sabi CAD/CAM
Building flaws into CAD designs—on purpose
By Lee Krombholz
Jewelry makers who handcraft their pieces leave an indelible mark on the work for eternity. Physically interacting with metal and gemstones to shape and transform them into a wearable piece of art is a very personal process, and the resulting work reflects that. When CAD/CAM hit the jewelry scene, some jewelers were hesitant to embrace the technology because it made the jewelry-making process less personal. Jewelers’ hands were traded for computers that generated very precise, accurate models—but they usually lacked the subtle imperfections of a handcrafted piece.
As a classically trained goldsmith who has embraced CAD/CAM, I am on a quest to find ways to bring together the best of both worlds-to create jewelry pieces in CAD/CAM that have a handcrafted feel. After studying consumer preferences in my retail store for the past few years, I have come to realize that the perfection and symmetry produced by CAD is not always preferred by the masses. When presented with two nearly identical designs—one made by hand, the other produced using CAD/CAM—and asked which they liked better, the consumers who visited my store were essentially split 50/50. (To read more about this experiment, see "Old vs. New," January 2010 MJSA Journal.)
In speaking with other jewelry makers about this topic, I have found that I am not alone in my mission to infuse imperfection into my CAD designs. And I think Wabi Sabi may be the answer.
What Is Wabi Sabi?
"The only perfection is imperfection," says designer Robin Haley of Nashville, Tennessee, who introduced me to a Japanese aesthetic called Wabi Sabi, which essentially finds beauty in the imperfect. This belief is rooted in the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence, and specifically the one mark relating to impermanence. An example of the embodiment of this aesthetic is Japanese pottery, which showcases simple shapes that are not quite symmetric.
"Wabi Sabi is embracing the God in nature—the beauty of flow and movement," says Haley. "It’s a ’feeling’ thing, like the singer whose song is felt so strongly that when her voice breaks by the force of that emotion she makes us understand her heart on a deeper level than when her voice just hits the notes on key."
For the jewelry designer who uses CAD/CAM, taking a Wabi Sabi approach pushes you to include minor adjustments to symmetry and details to make your jewelry feel more human. It also means adding handwork to CAM models and finished castings to infuse your human fingerprint into the piece.
"The challenge in CAD is finding the human, and therefore divine, element," says Haley. "It’s the same as the emotional element of the singer who connects with our souls by her im-perfection. CAD helps us get to our design, but the way we infuse the human touch into the piece lets its true beauty shine. That is Wabi Sabi."
And this isn’t the first time in jewelry-making history that a push back from perfection has emerged, says Michael Coan, chair of the Jewelry Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. "The Arts and Crafts movement was a response to the industrial revolution’s ’mechanical’ jewelry," he says. "Hand-beaten metals and purposely imperfect craftsmanship were raised up as art.
"The individuality of design is what keeps us going, striving, re-thinking, and re-imagining our world," Coan adds. "CAD is a great facilitator—a wonderful tool—but that tool has to be used, understood, and stretched by talented individuals who know history, know their contemporaries, and look to the unknown. Anyone can press the replicate/duplicate button, but consumers like to look for that ’thumbprint.’"
