Lovegrove: Foliates

The term Foliates is derived from the botanical world of plants.

It relates to leaves and leaf structures, their highly evolved shapes that are there to capture sunlight and rain.

These rings and this collection appear is as if the very last virgin leaves of a tree or plant have unfurled from ones hand so that there is a relationship between the finger and the leaf, the gold appearing from the delicate void, feminine, sensual and unattended.

Using 3D printing Lovegrove wanted to create tessellations which challenge the current cutting edge processes and achieving high-resolution details in the area of 0.05 –0.1m. He prototyped various production methods such as DMLS (direct metal laser sintering) and 3D wax printing combined with lost wax casting.

The tessellations have been iterated multiple times and rings positioned in the machine in an optimised way to allow the most precise detailing. Final methods, partners and machine set ups shall remain secret until after their initial launch. The final rings are pure 18kt gold and used 3D printing for the actual object rather than just created in a conventional mould process.