Natural History Designs by Michael Holland
By
DinoFab
Natural history themed jewlery designs by Michael Holland. Michael's exhibit features can be seen in a number of museums, including the Smithsonian, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Museum of the Rockies, and the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture. His jewelry can be seen on hundreds of paleontology enthusiasts around the world. You could be one of them!
$81.36
About
For many years, my work in fossil preparation and museum exhibit fabrication has overlapped with my work in metalsmithing and jewelry design, each influencing the other. While I am fascinated by the biology of the extinct animals that I work on, time spent handling and working intimately with their fossil remains imparts a kind of visceral understanding of them as aesthetic objects. Their structure and texture fascinate me, and their sometimes strange forms remind us of the amazing diversity of life on this planet. I find much satisfaction in honoring them by creating lasting representations that can be shared easily with others simply by wearing them. I produced my first pieces of dinosaur jewelry in 1992, and it's been wonderful to see people continuing to enjoy them today.
Now, recent technology is enabling exciting new design possibilities! Digital sculpture and 3D printing have brought greater design freedom and flexibility not found in traditional casting methods. While not every model designed can be 3D printed, many can be, sometimes offering a greater level of complexity than can be achieved by casting. Since no molds are made, pieces can be easily changed and modified or scaled up or down in size. If an existing piece is nearly perfect, but needs just a small adjustment, there's no need to make an entirely new and different mold in order to fold that change into the production stream. And without the limits on what types of materials my studio is set up to cast, I can offer my designs in a wider array of metals, from steel to platinum. Better still, using the Shapeways platform, pieces can be produced on demand, even when I'm busy working on the real dinosaurs.
Now, recent technology is enabling exciting new design possibilities! Digital sculpture and 3D printing have brought greater design freedom and flexibility not found in traditional casting methods. While not every model designed can be 3D printed, many can be, sometimes offering a greater level of complexity than can be achieved by casting. Since no molds are made, pieces can be easily changed and modified or scaled up or down in size. If an existing piece is nearly perfect, but needs just a small adjustment, there's no need to make an entirely new and different mold in order to fold that change into the production stream. And without the limits on what types of materials my studio is set up to cast, I can offer my designs in a wider array of metals, from steel to platinum. Better still, using the Shapeways platform, pieces can be produced on demand, even when I'm busy working on the real dinosaurs.
