Claddagh by CAD

Last summer I went to the Park Ave Summer Arts Festival. Park Ave brings back a lot of fond memories. It’s no longer the quiet little neighborhood where I grew up. To say it’s become Rochester’s version of Greenwich Village may be stretching it a bit, but it’s definitely evolved into a hip little urban area where people from all over come to shop the eclectic mix of shops, boutiques and galleries and to dine at the many cafes, restaurants and pubs.

After spending 24 years in Connecticut, I’m enjoying living here again. Talking about coming full circle…yesterday I voted in the gym at the school that I attended from kindergarten to 7th grade.

Stephen Walker, owner of Walker Metalsmiths was one of the first people to write to me after I put out a message on Orchid to say I was moving back to Rochester and wanted to connect with fellow Orchidians in the area. So…it was nice to meet him that day back in August at the shop his son Andrew manages off of Park Ave.

A few weeks later I ran into Stephen again at an Irish Festival where he had a booth. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned that three different customers had recently come in looking for a type of Claddagh ring that he didn’t make. Isn’t that the way it is? All sorts of Claddagh rings in his shop, but not a Claddagh on a half-domed wedding band with side rails.

I thought it was something I could probably make, so we made plans to go over the design after the weekend. A few phone conversations and an email or two later, I had a pretty good idea of what he was looking for.

First, I drew a standard half-domed wedding band with side rails.

From Claddagh by CAD

I don’t always have a fully developed understanding of how to accomplish a design when I begin working on it, but by drawing the vector lines of the claddagh on the 2d layout of the band and filling them with color, a method came to mind.

From Claddagh by CAD

It was as simple as flattening the area under the red color to trim out the basic forms.

From Claddagh by CAD

The forms under each color were built up and carefully refined with ArtCAM’s shape editor and sculpting tools.

From Claddagh by CAD

Since the ring is symmetrical, I was able to mirror/merge the left side over to the right. To complete the design, I added a stippled texture to the background.