Cantilever-spar cable-stayed bridge

another of Santiago Calatrava master pieces. i love the way the cables are strung and the curved deck. it is different from a normal Side-spar cable-stayed bridge because the tower is angled away from the bridge this exerts overturning force upon its foundation. i like this because it makes it look like the tower is pulling the bridge up and so makes the forces at play more obvious

Side-spar cable-stayed bridge

one of the variations of a cable stay bridge is a Side-spar cable-stayed bridge. in this bridge the tower is offset to the side making it possible to make a bridge that curves. being a fan of asymmetry i like this.

Suspension bridge

what i like about suspension bridges is the parabolic curve that the main cables make. what i dont like is also the cables, i dont like how the force is distributed. the weight is still entirely supported by the towers, but there have to be huge anchorages at the ends of the main cables to stop them from being pulled out of the ground. it lacks the simplicity of a cable stay bridge.

Cable-stayed bridges

I love the way these brides look and the way they use force. the bridge deck is held up by cables that are connected to the towers. normally each deck section has its own cable. because the cables are at an angle they pull the deck sections towards the tower and pushing them together. what this means is that both the compressive and tensile loads are directed into the tower and the whole weight is supported by the tower. I see this as a more elegant solution than a suspension bridge

finaly finished a piece

completed the chain yesterday. I really like how it moves and the way the links can lie in different positions.

Scarred Earth

I love how this building looks...the curves are amazing and i love how it seems to be floating off the ground. I really hope it ends up as green as the concept rendering. i think its really sad how we can create something so beautiful on the earth, but then also we scar it and destroy its natural beauty

second link

this is the two span link. i made the steel spans too long after looking at it i decided to make a few more links the same to see how it looked and decided i kind of like how the links can move and lie in different positions i will still do another chain with shorted spans but i will also make this one.

test link

this is the 1st link i made with my new tool. it came out alright on the one side and I'm sure i could perfect it, but it is not very easy to make and it takes to much time. after looking at it a realized that it does not need four steel cable spans so i decided to simply it so it only had two.

Evolution

this is the new tool i have made it has a tab on the back so i can press it against the vice and a small ledge under is for the link to rest on. With this i can hold the two tools and the link with one hand and tighten the vice with the other.

A little glue goes a long way

since i started working with steel cable i realized that it was very hard to work with because it wants to spring everywhere except where you want it to be. I have been trying to solve this problem with binding wire and other methods to try hold it in place these all failed...then the other day i realized the answer came in a bottle all i need is a small drop of glue to hold it in place.

long way around

after struggling to crimp my new prototype link i decided to make a tool i could just put in the vice with the link... it works relatively well but it is still hard to use because i need to hold two of these and the link while i tighten the vice i need to make something that can hold all three together so it will be easier

Battered and bruised

this is the 1st test piece i have made after trying different ways to crimp the steel cable in i finally made a tool and used that but it still need refinement

Splash page for Cold Chain

Design

Design, itself, is often difficult to define to non-designers because the meaning accepted by the design community is not one made of words, "wikipedia"
I find this idea interesting...

Carnegie Mellon's School of Design, "Design is the process of taking something from its existing state and moving it to a preferred state."
For me a well designed item has had all the ugliness taken out of something.

Chartered Society of Designers, "design is a force that delivers innovation that in turn has exploited creativity"
I feel that what I am trying to capture in my jewellery is this 'innovation' I want to show it in a different way to make people notice it...

ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design), "Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life-cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange."
I like the idea of humanization of technologies...I feel that often technology is a form of synthetic life we create. i also feel we try to imbue these items with human qualities to make them more a part of ourselves...

Connectors

I found this connector on the net I wander if i could use a similar connector in jewellery. I would like to try make one with rivets instead on bolts.

some photoshop

this is some Photoshop work i did for shining lights I am relatively happy with how it came out I still looks three dimensional and the sparkle came out great. I need to work on making it so you can see the individual stones though