Jewellery: between the tangible and the virtual. A workshop with Eva Vedel

Starting with a personal object imbued with emotional, symbolic, or memorial significance, each participant will develop a digital transformation process involving digitization, shape manipulation, scaling, hybridization, and sculptural reinterpretation. The original object will serve as design material to be repurposed, distorted, or augmented to create a precious form for integration into a piece of jewelry. The workshop will cover various 3D modeling techniques tailored to jewelry design, as well as the specific considerations of designing for additive manufacturing. Participants will experiment with a range of digital tools (3D scanning, artificial intelligence, modeling) and printing materials, from plastic to ceramic. Conceived as a space for research and creation, the workshop will alternate between technical instruction, formal experimentation, and personal development time, with the aim of envisioning jewelry as micro-sculptures worn on the body.

Object to bring: participants are asked to bring a personal object (a small item, keepsake, fragment, material, accessory, etc.) to serve as the starting point for creative exploration and digitization. Ideally, the object should be made of an opaque material (no glass).


Workshop Schedule (4 days):

- Day 1, Scanning, repurposing, and setting: from real to virtual.

Morning: Introduction & digitization
Objective: to understand how to transform a real object into digital creative material.

• Workshop presentation, artistic references, and the significance of sculptural jewelry.
• Overview of digitization techniques: 3D scanning photogrammetry artificial intelligence (image → volume).

Exercise 1:

• Digitizing a personal object each participant captures their object.
• Preparing the 3D model.

Afternoon: Hacking a form & creating a first piece of jewelry.
Objective: to learn the basics of digital modeling and stone setting.

• Introduction to Blender and Nomad Sculpt.
• Manipulating forms: cutting, hollowing out, extruding, smoothing, merging, adjusting proportions.

Exercise 2:

• Repurposing the object: enlarging a detail, creating a scale anomaly, transforming the object into a micro-sculpture.

Exercise 3:

• Creating a digital setting.
• Introduction to Boolean operations.
• Creating a base for a pendant, brooch, or ring.
• Integrating the transformed object into a piece of jewelry.

End-of-day deliverable:

• An initial 3D-printed digital jewelry prototype.

- Day 2, Constructing a Wearable Sculptural Form.

Morning: Jewelry Modeling.
Objective: Learn the fundamentals of 3D modeling for jewelry.

• Introduction to Fusion 360.
• Learning the tools: Extrusion, Revolution, Loft Symmetry, Fillets, Assembly.

Exercise 4:

• Guided Modeling.
• Create a ring step by step.
• Integrate a setting or structural logic.

Afternoon: Sculptural Composition.
Objective: To compose a personal formal language.

Exercise 5:

• Building with Simple Geometries.
• Create a library of simple shapes.
• Assemble and merge volumes.
• Create a jewelry family (pendant, earring, ring, body element).

Guided Free Exploration Time:

• Organic forms Hybridization of volumes.
• Textures Experiments with scale.

End-of-day deliverable:

• One or more models ready for 3D printing.

- Day 3, 3D Ceramic Printing: From Digital to Material.

Morning: Discovering Ceramic Fabrication.
Objective: Understanding the material constraints of clay printing.

• Introduction to 3D ceramic printing.
• Clay preparation.
• Machine loading and settings.

Afternoon: Experimenting with Form
Printing alongside productions

Exercise 6:

• Drawing in Volume.
• Creating a pendant from a 2D drawing.
• Extrusion of a design.

Exercise 7:

• Tubular Forms.
• Modeling a tubular structure.
• Exploring continuity, thickness, and gravity.
• Creating printable jewelry or sculptural fragments.
• Printing time + file adjustments.

- Day 4, Project Development & Presentation.

Morning:
Guided Free Exploration Objective.

• To explore a personal approach.
• Further continued exploration of plastic and ceramic prints iterations on models.
• Finalization of forms.
• Individual guidance.

Afternoon:
Open Workshop & Group Review.

• Finalization of pieces.
• Documentation/photography.
• Time discussion around the themes: jewelry and memory augmented body wearable sculpture digital materiality.

Final Presentation

• Each participant presents their projects developed during the workshop.

Mounaval is an old family farm built during the Revolution where vines were grown. This reinvented place is home to Harry's cycle restoration workshop, a Bavarian with a passion for bicycles, as well as the studio of the visual artist Babette Boucher. This is our living space.

Le sel de la main was born twenty years ago during a wild residency between friends in Burgundy and was finally born in Marrakech, where we lived for a few years. The workshops were finally organised in Mounaval, a small place with 6 hectares of forest, nestled on a hillside with a view of the Pyrenees.

Calm, rurality, nature, orchard, vegetable garden, river, swimming, hiking, starry nights... so many words that set the scene for a relaxing stay. Here, you can stay for a course or a residence with all simplicity. The barn has been transformed into a comfortable dormitory. Spacious tents set in the chestnut grove offer simple and eco-friendly comfort. The toilets and shower are located in the house, while the dry toilets and shower are located outside.


Terms and conditions:
Payment will be made either on arrival at Mounaval, in cash, or by cheque or bank transfer to Le sel de la main account. You will be asked to pay a deposit of 300 euros when you book online, which is refundable if the course is cancelled or in the event of force majeure.

Food and Drink:
Meal times are fixed to allow the group to get together. Depending on the weather, they take place outdoors or indoors in our communal area equipped with an open, friendly kitchen where cooking workshops also take place. Food is served buffet-style: creative, healthy dishes, mainly Mediterranean with a vegetarian focus, for lunch and dinner. Special dishes are prepared for people who announce their allergies or dietary requirements in advance. Everyone helps prepare the meals!
We favour local products; a large part of the fruit and vegetables come from the vegetable garden and orchard of Mounaval. Alcoholic drinks are not included in the price. As an extra, we offer a regional wine as well as homemade beer produced in Mounaval.

How to get there:
Mounaval is located in Varen in the Tarn et Garonne, between the towns of Albi, Gaillac and Villefranche de Rouergue. The nearest train station is Lexos or Laguépie, where we will pick you up. The nearest airport is Toulouse.

Le Sel de la Main *The salt of the hand
The association Le sel de la main invites people to learn and discover artistic and craft techniques. It brings together people from all walks of life who share a common passion: creating and experimenting together.

Le sel de la main offers the opportunity to participate in residential workshops where you can immerse yourself, take the time to discover, create and learn new disciplines, and build a network of friends and professional contacts. These moments of sharing and exchange are particularly enriching and allow everyone to progress.

Le sel de la main offers a setting surrounded by nature on the Mounaval estate, where you can recharge your batteries and reconnect with yourself. A time for yourself away from everyday life, allowing everyone to take the time to refocus on their deepest aspirations.

Creative, artistic and rejuvenating holidays, to take care of yourself. So listen to yourself! Join us, far from the stress and constraints of everyday life, to share these special moments in a serene and inspiring environment.