Inspirations | Jordan Askill

Mr. Askill, Sydney native and former assistant at Dior Homme, is a ridiculously cool sculptor/jeweler, incorporating 3D scanning and rapid prototyping into his design process. The complexity of his finished forms, often delicately assembled collages of animals, is astounding.


In an interview with Fader magazine Askill speaks a little about his design process, and how it incorporates modelling technology (which from my experience, often pushes one into using more polygonal geometries) into his extremely organic designs.


"How do you go from a computer design to a finished piece?

I take a 3-D scan of a found object that I want to use, or I’ll create a base shape in the computer and sculpt them from there. Then I make a 3-D print out, so the design comes out as a little wax object. Afterward, I have crystal carved using the wax prototype, or I make a mold of the prototype to cast the final product. If it hasn’t come out exactly correct, I’ll embellish it by hand. So things have two processes, which is important to me, because I don’t want people to entirely forget about the old artisan techniques.

What does technology add to your work? 
I just love the fact that with digital technology you can create one complete piece that has direct symmetry and organization. So, in a way, it’s all completely organic and uniform because there’s no glue or pieces joined together. Keep it as clean and as pure as possible. You don’t find glue in a rock or in a wave, it’s just one pure form."

(read more: at thefader.com)



I was particularly excited to stumble upon his work, since I've been pretty much keeping this generative flocking jewelry project of mine on the back burner since last year. Especially with lunar gala coming up, I really wanted to dust them off a bit and incorporate them into my collection, but couldn't think of a way to appealingly translate the odd geometries into wearable pieces. Clearly, if its awesome enough, you just tell the model to keep her arm a little farther away from her body, and to be a darling and try not to snag it on anything. 

(images from here and here)