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Sustainable products from explorations
The image in Sustainable Me [3] post, shows a scarf in a series with 3D printed motifs on beautiful designer deadstock lacy fabric . The lace is black which shows off the red 3D printed flowing caligraphic forms digitally designed using Anarkik3DDesign, a haptic 3D modelling programme.

Sustainable me means Ann Marie having valuable time, space and a smidgen of time pressure to not only explore and experiment with different processes and materials but to also add value to the abundant waste and scrap around us and create things that others can own and treasure.

A VACMA award gave Ann Marie Shillito just this. Closing the Loop‘s “MATTER | Earth, Material and Making” exhibition at the Barn gave purpose and a deadline. Fold, the shop at the Barn, gave an Ann Marie the opportunity to develop her explorations into finished pieces. The image on the left shows a scarf in a series with 3D printed motifs on beautiful designer deadstock lacy fabric. The black lace shows off the red 3D printed flowing caligraphic forms which were digitally designed using Anarkik3DDesign, a haptic 3D modelling programme.

Although only two projects out of five were selected for MATTER, the purpose of this series of Sustainable Me posts is to bring together the bulk of Ann Marie’s work created in the past two and a half years with information about their making process.

Dazzle Brooch

Previous to the MATTER exhibition, Dazzle Exhibitions celebrated 40 years and 150 exhibitions in 2021 by inviting forty makers from across those four decades to make a special brooch. Ann Marie was one of the 40. For her ‘Dazzle brooch’ she intended to continue her lockdown project investigating 3D printing on fabric as she had purchased a scrap of fine black ex-designer deadstock silk, her inspiration for her brooch.

These two images show the start of the creative process for a 3D printed brooch: first is a screen capture of the 3D digital model made up of circles and ovals of different sizes and shapes. Second image is of two 3D printed prototypes in different red filaments, to test for size and print quality.

She started by designing digitally using Anarkik3DDesign (screen capture on right) playing with circles and ovals of different sizes and shapes.

Next was to 3D print a prototype but in discussions during Closing the Loop’s monthly online meet-ups Ann Marie decided to try 3D printer filament that had a higher percentage of recycled polymer to virgin material. This meant testing (two prototypes far right image) as 3D printers have different configurations. Ann Marie Uses an Ultimaker 2+. Different makes and types of filament need 3D printer parameters tweaking to achieve quality results. This includes the temperature of the hot-end for optimum extrusion, fan and flow speeds, retraction rates, etc.

The strip of six images below covers the process of making the brooch: first the digital design was process for 3D printing and the first two images show one of the tests being printed. This was to check for size and the quality of the printing as the red PLA polymer filament (55% recycled) was new to her.

This banner of images show the prototype of the 3D digital model of circles and ovals of different sizes and shapes being printed (first two images). Next is the actual design being 3D printed in red filament on fine black ex-designer deadstock silk fabric, then cutting the fabric off the print, the finished brooch and finally the brooch included with some of the other 40 brooches, celebrating Dazzle's 40th Anniversary in 2021.
This image shows the actual brooch 3D printed in red filament on fine black ex-designer deadstock silk fabric with a fringe of the silk threads like a black aura around the edges.

For the actual brooch the third image shows the loose-weave ex-designer deadstock silk material stretched, clipped and pinned over the first printed layers and then the printing resumed. The forth image shows the silk fabric cut away from the finished printed form, leaving a fringe of silk threads (5th image). The last image shows just some of the forty special one-off brooches which were exhibited at the Dovecot Studios during Edinburgh Festival, August 2021. Ann Marie’s brooch is bottom centre.

Next idea re Sustainable Me
Designing flowing caligraphic forms

As part of Sustainable Me [3], Ann Marie Shillito as produced a small range of scarves and this image shows one going from the start of 3D printing a motif in red filament to laying black spotty designer deadstock net over these first layers and printing on top, to an image of Ann Marie with the finished scarf around her neck.

The idea for the scarves came serendipitiously when she was rooting through her material. Ann Marie draped some black dotty ex-designer deadstock net around her neck on which a test piece had been 3D printed. She stitched the remainder of the net into two short scarves, amended earlier designs and 3D printed them onto the scarves.

The image in Sustainable Me [3] post, shows a digital 3D design made up of 3 flowing forms, red on a blue background. This motif is 3D printed in red filament on beautiful black designer deadstock lacy fabric to make a scarf. The black which shows off the red 3D printed flowing caligraphic forms digitally designed using Anarkik3DDesign, a haptic 3D modelling programme.

For the MATTER exhibition and ajoining shop, Ann Marie wanted to make longer scarves with bespoke motifs. Designing with Anarkik3DDesign, she set herself a challenge – to design flowing caligraphic forms which she hadn’t tried in this programme before.

Using the line tool, with the ‘x’ key to create a straignt line, she then deformed the line, thickening and thinning it, pushing and pulling it into a curvy line, using the ‘y’ key too to keep the form flat. She also used non-uniform scaling, again with the ‘x’ and ‘y’ keys, in a serendipitious mind-set un-doing and re-forming to get shapes that worked well together.

The back of the forms were ‘booleaned’ uniformaly flat to give good adhesion when the motif was duly 3D printed on to designer deadstock scalloped lacey material that has been sewn into a long panel.

This image in Sustainable Me post is a screen capture of a design which is a lighter and more complex form of overlapping flowing squiggles to go on organza with delicate printed and coloured patterns.

Ann Marie had also purchased a square meter of ex-designer deadstock organza with printed paterns which she had cut and edges machined as scarves ready to be 3D printed on. This was a more ambitious task as the fine lacy patterns called for a lighter, maybe more complex, form.

In Anarkik3DDesign she started with the previous forms, and used the same tools and methods to refine and duplicate the shapes.

The design was processed in Cura, that is sliced, and a test print done on an offcut of the organza using a blue ONE PET filament.

ONE PET is a 100% recycled filament made from post-consumer PET plastic bottle waste. This is a stiff and tough material with excellent interlayer adhesion and available in a wide range of colours.

Image shows two reels of sustainable 3D printer filament in red and blue, plus 4 3D printed test pieces in red filament.

As noted above, different makes and types of filament need different 3D printer parameters and desktop 3D printers are configured differently. Producers of filament provide general settings for the temperature for the hot-end for optimum extrusion and layer adhesion, fan and flow speeds, retraction rates, etc. and the necessity for oven-drying the filament at for instance 65° for 24 hours. The design of an object also dictates that 3D printing parameters be tweaked to achieve quality results. Ann Marie uses an Ultimaker 2 upgraded in 2020 to 2+. This all adds up to too many variables!

In the image below the test print in the blue ONE PET filament produced a reasonably good 3D print on the organza (left) but the colour is too intense for its delicate colours and patterns. From somewhere Ann Marie had acquired a sample length of a pale gold coloured filament which works colour-wise but the polymer type isn’t known! It took numerous test to achieve a half decent result and she persisted as she wanted to use up what is lying around, not purchase new filament even 100% recycled PET polymer.

This image in Sustainable Me post is a composite 3D printed tests in blue and gold filament of a design which is a lighter and more complex form of overlapping flowing squiggles to go on organza with delicate printed and coloured patterns.
This image in Sustainable Me post shows a scarf in organza, with delicate printed and coloured patterns, with a 3D printed motif in gold filament of a design which is a light complex form of overlapping flowing squiggles

From somewhere Ann Marie had acquired a sample length of a pale gold coloured filament which works colour-wise but the polymer type isn’t known! It took numerous test to achieve a half decent result and she persisted as she wanted to use up what is lying around, not purchase new filament even if it is 100% recycled PET polymer.

This image in Sustainable Me post shows the type of scrap and waste 3D printer filament bits from years of 3D printing which are used in creatve ways to make jewellery and decorative objects.

The next post is about 3D printing on stuff other than fabric. The two posts after that are about making objects that use all her waste and scrap filament in creative ways, designing frames and connectors that add value to the abundant bits and pieces that are in Ann Marie’s studio from at least 10 years of desktop 3D printing!

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Sustainable Me! Image shows Ann Marie's corner display at Closing the Loop's exhibition at the Barn, Banchory in Aberdeenshire: her lampshade of joined up waste plastic spice pots, and her exploratory '3D printing on fabric' test pieces pinned on the wall in the MATTER exhibition, "like moths", Allison said, "attracted to the light"

Finding creative solutions where 3D printing adds desirability and value to waste materials.

Common themes: Personal wellbeing during Lockdown, reclaimed/reused/recycled. Zero waste.

Lockdown project: 3D Printing onto Fabric

“I have wanted to explore 3D printing on fabric for a few years, fascinated by the potential. This technique is already used by cosplay fans, experimental art projects and for fashion. I want in on this, to push my own style and aesthetic and explore this process as a designer maker.”This post, ‘Sustainable Me! [2]’, complements Ann Marie Shillito’s work currently on display in Closing the Loop’s ‘MATTER: Earth, Material + Making’ exhibition at the Barn in Banchory in Scotland, and on until 12th November 2022.

The exhibition is the work of twelve Applied Arts Scotland members, exploring environmental wellbeing through making: drawing on craft practices that value & respect natural resources, waste materials, biodiversity & production systems.

Ann Marie’s intention with this series of posts is to provide information on the purpose and methods behind work she made for the exhibition: the two projects displayed, three further projects that were not included, and finished project pieces now on sale in the Barn’s store, Fold.

This post covers 3D printing on fabric and other stuff, and this image shows some of her exploratory test pieces pinned on the wall in the MATTER exhibition, “like moths”, Allison said, “attracted to the light” – a lampshade of joined up waste plastic spice pots.

Why I want to 3D print onto fabric.

Ann Marie already uses 3D digital technologies to design and produce her 3D printed jewellery. For 3D modelling she uses Anarkik3DDesign that her company, Anarkik3D, develops because it is specifically developed for designer makers. She just loves using it and it is perfect for this project . Also Anarkik3D have an Ultimaker2 desktop 3D printer used in their 3D digital modelling workshops to demonstrate the principles of 3D printing. It is also fine for this project and more details later in this post.

Sustainable Me! Blue PLA filament printed in random shapes onto black lace.

Lockdown gave Ann Marie the space and sufficient blocks of time for her own explorative work – office space was empty, freed up time with no marketing, workshops or masterclasses, no preparing and running them, no pressure to make finished products. She read up on how other makers are 3D printing onto fabrics, and just jumped in to try out ideas and play.

Finding suitable fabrics

This project is about sustainability and about experimenting in a purposeful way. The initiall issue with lockdown was finding suitable fabric on which to print successfully – fine loose woven fabric that would withstand the temperature of the ‘hot end’ and the extruding filament. Searching through her sewing box and bags of material she found black lace knickers and saw the possibilities. Knickers were duly sacrificed to kick-start the project. Her first test run was disappointing (image on left), not because of the fabric but because the 3D printer was not printing the PLA filament sufficiently well to adhere through the lacy holes to the layers underneath. Tweaking print parameters such as temperature, printing speed, pressure on the filament through the ‘feeder’, etc. helped to improve the results. 

Sustainable Me! Red PLA filament printed onto black lace, made into a brooch in the shape of panties. (March/April 2020). The earrings, also red PLA filament printed onto black lace, have titanium earwires added when the printing was paused.

The design needed more thought to make best use of the lacy fabric and the patterns. The ‘knickers’ naratives was fun and cheeky and colleagues on online meet-ups enjoyed the narrative.

Image: Red PLA filament printed onto black lace, made into a brooch, one of the first successful 3D prints on fabric. (March/April 2020). The earrings were designed and made later as they explored adding titanium earwires when the printing was paused. This is explained in greater detail in a later post.

Ann Marie found a roll of wide white border lace and designed to both frame the patterns in simply forms and reduce 3D printing waste by removing the need for supports, ‘brims’ and ‘rafts’.

Sustainable Me! Screen capture showing a digital model created using Anarkik3DDesign. A torus (donut) reforms into a skinny one, is scaled into an oval, copy/pasted twice, each oval scaled down, heights adjusted, moved to overlap and rotated a bit, This will be 3D printed in pink filament on to white lace.

Digital designing for 3D printing and sustainability

Screen capture on the left: digital model created using Anarkik3DDesign. A torus (donut) reforms into a skinny one, is scaled on the y axis into an oval, copy/pasted twice, each oval scaled down, heights adjusted, moved to overlap and rotated a bit. Anarkik3DDesign is optimised for 3D printing so models, in .stl file format, are imported to Ultimaker’s Cura software, sliced, and data transferred in gcode.

Sustainable Me! this image shows a pattern of 3 ovals being 3D printed onto white lace, and the finished brooch in pink filament framing the lace.

The process for 3D printing on white lace.

3D desktop printers use gcode data to accurately print each layers’ x, y parameters. The z parameter depends on nozzle size and how fine the extruded thickness is. After printing ten or so layers Ann Marie manually paused printing in order to stretch the strip of lace over the build plate and first printed layers, secured with bulldog clips to the sides of the build plate, with top and bottom edges taped down, to hold the lace taut. Printing was then resumed.

Tape is not a good solution. The build plate is heated so the tape gets messy and guey, and comes unstuck.

Finishing was relatively easy with no support material or brim to remove from the ovals. A customised brooch pin and hook was fixed to the back to become a birthday present for a friend! (April 2020).

The pink ABS filament printed well but Ann Marie prefers to work with PLA as it is a bit ‘greener’ than the ABS filament. (See previous Sustainable Me post).

This banner below shows some of Ann Marie’s 3D printed samples in gold, pink and black ABS and red PLA polymer filaments on (from the left): lace, silk/steel organza type fabric, lace in a layer under silk/steel organza, japanese paper, silk/steel organza, all made between March and July 2020.

Sustainable Me! This banner shows some of Ann Marie's 3D printed samples in gold, pink and black ABS and red PLA polymer filaments on (from the left): lace, silk/steel organza type fabric, lace in a layer under silk/steel organza, japanese paper, silk/steel organza, all made between March and July 2020.
Sustainable Me! This image shows a red 3D printed oval printed on to silk/steel organza and the edges trimmed clean.

The silk/steel fabric is special, a weave of silk and very fine steel thread. Ann Marie had just 15 cm square. Initially she was quite intimidated by this preciousness, challenged to design forms that justify and use its qualities well. She exploited its shimmeriness, the wirery properties of the metal threads, taking a knife to one piece, slashing the fabric, and teasing out the fibres of steel. With the piece on the left she parted the fibres of the fabric and went on to explore this effect with greater manipulation of the fibres.

Sustainable Me! This image shows an oval design with a floating internal torus. When 3D printed on fabric it is held in place by the fabric. It also has a double layer of fabric and, in the space between, some bits of filament and some beads were added before the second layer of fabric (lace) was stretched over and printing resumed in bright red filament.

Material to play with

Friends and colleagues provided more lace and Ann Marie purchased deadstock organza. Having loads of material to work on, to experiment with meant trying, testing and playing presented interesting discoveries and inevitably some failures – learning curves. And Ann Marie advocates serendipity as chance discoveries lead to all sorts of new avenues.

The japanese paper she tried has fibres tracing through it with random holes of different sizes but only parts of the frame 3D printed successfully where there were holes. As she liked this combination of materials a lot she ‘cheated’ and used adhesive to stick polymer/paper layers firmly together.

This design on the right has a floating torus, held in place by fabric. It also has a double layer of fabric and, in the space between, some bits of filament and some beads were added before the second pause and second layer of fabric (lace) was stretched over and printing resumed.

The banner below shows the process from the design in Anarkik3DDesign on the left to finished piece. The second image shows the design exported as an .stl file to Ultimaker’s Cura software and the panel where an instruction to the printer to pause at a specific layer can be added to the gcode. Instructions transferred on an SD card to the Ultimaker‘s controller mean that the printer duly paused at layer 15, the build plate lowered a bit and the hot-end/extruder moved off to the back right hand corner. With the build plate still near the top of the printer it was really difficult to fix the bulldog clips into place to hold the lace taut. Initially Ann Marie had used manual pausing whereby the build plate moved down a bit making it easier to access the edges with the clips. But the build plate cools too much.

Sustainable Me! The banner shows the process from the digital design of overlapping circles created in Anarkik3DDesign, the design exported to Ultimaker’s Cura software, the design 3D printed on lace on the 3DPrinters build plate, and the finished piece made into a brooch

Sustainable Me! The banner of images shows the various methods used to stretch the fabric across the partially 3D printed objects and hold it securely while the printing is completed: tape, custom made steel pins, clips and a fabric border to which the fabric can be pinned.

As pieces became more complicated an easier method to hold fabric taut over the first layers was needed. Images above from left to right: Tape became sticky. Long custom-made steel hooks were useful where the fabric was small or narrow or a funny size but could take too long to fix in place. Bulldog clips and other types worked fine but were awkward to put into place as the space between 3D printer sides and the edge of the build plate was tight. Ann Marie devised a fabric edging for the build plate, held in place with corners and clips to which the materials could be swiftly pinned. This also made smaller pieces of fabric usable. To enable Ann Marie get in to pin all four sides the position that the printhead moved to, when printing was paused, was changed via coding in Cura from a back corner to a central position.

Sustainable Me! This image shows some of Ann Marie Shillito's exploratory '3D printing on fabric' pieces on display at the Barn, pinned to the wall in Closing the Loop's "MATTER | Earth, Material and Making" exhibition, on until 11th November 2022 .

This image on the left shows just a limited number of her ‘3D printing on fabric’ pieces on display at the Barn, pinned to the wall in Closing the Loop’s “MATTER | Earth, Material and Making” exhibition, on until 11th November 2022 .

Two of the samples are different in that the 3D printing traps other stuff: fired porcelain off-cuts from Carol Sinclair and ‘O’ rings left over from a previous project. Another post will cover making these.

The next ‘Sustainable Me’ post covers the process in the making of two pieces for selling exhibitions: Red Red Brooch for Dazzle and scarves for Fold. The previous ‘Sustainable Me’ post is an introduction to Ann Marie’s work and also covers the process in making a lampshade from waste spicepots and 3D printed widgets.

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Sustainable Me: Image shows Ann Marie's work in Closing the Loop's exhibition on in the Barn, Banchory in Scotland: a lit-up lampshade of connected waste plastic spice pots, and 3D printed samples pinned on the wall in her corner exhibition space.

This first post, ‘Sustainable Me’, complements Ann Marie Shillito’s work which is currently on display in Closing the Loop’s ‘MATTER: Earth, Material + Making’ exhibition at the Barn in Banchory in Scotland, and on until 12th November 2022. The exhibition has the work of twelve Applied Arts Scotland members, exploring environmental wellbeing through making: drawing on craft practices that value & respect natural resources, waste materials, biodiversity & production systems.

Image shows just two of Ann Marie’s projects: her personal recycling project – a lampshade using small designed 3D printed units which join waste plastic spice pots to make a lamp shade. Plus her ‘Lockdown’ Project – 3D printing on fabric and other stuff. Exploratory test pieces are pinned on the wall, plus samples of 3D printing filament.

Ann Marie’s intention with these posts is to provide information on the process behind all the work she made for the exhibition: the two projects displayed, three further projects that were not included in the exhibition, and finished project pieces now on sale in the Barn’s store, Fold. More information here.

Bit of background and two home ‘Sustainable Me’ projects

Ann Marie is a jeweller and maker with many years’ experience using non precious materials, digital design using Anarkik3DDesign 3D modelling programme, and 3D printing, to produce work sold online and in exhibitions and galleries internationally. She is an active Applied Arts Scotland member, participating in ‘Closing the Loop’, where the group focus is on investigating and exploring gaps in current materials knowledge and application of sustainability tools and practices in the studio, in partnership with Creative Informatics.

A mind-set around ‘making the most of what you have available’, from her Zambian childhood, permeates her practice and her personal life. This attitude and approach is even more important now and with the support and commitment of her Closing the Loop gang she aims to get as close as possible now to ‘net zero waste’ in all her activities. She intends to only repurpose the waste that she creates with her 3D printer and that comes from daily living, such as milk bottle tops, carton tops and pull tops, fruit bags and labels. She received a VACMA Edinburgh Award to support taking the personal project of the last 24 months into a research and development stage, towards working more sustainably by considering and actively experimenting and exploring how her materials or processes could be sourced more locally, and designing to recycled materials, utilise and minimise the waste stream her product produces.

Sustainable Me: Image shows a jacket made by Ann Marie Shillito, crocheted in waste carpet wool, woven with strips of waste fabric in reds, oranges, pinks and purples.

An example of this attitude and approach is epitimised by this jacket which was made in 1980 and is a tangible and well loved garment because the different strips of fabric each hold precious and personal memories. These strips are from clothes that Ann Marie had made from material that she had chosen & purchased.

The Jacket was crocheted first as a holey garment, using waste carpet wool. Strips of fabric, cut from clothes that were torn or worn out, were sewn into tubes, turned rightside out and woven through the crocheted holes.

Sustainable Me: Image shows eco bricks made by Ann Marie Shillito by compacting plastic drinks bottles with those plastics that are not yet recycled. These bottles were used in her garden as a retaining wall.

Concerned about single-use soft plastics going into landfill, or burned, Ann Marie had come across projects using eco-bricks which are made by compacting into plastic bottles the soft plastics that are either not currently recycled or recyclable. With a garden project in mind she started collecting both sets of waste and in ‘lockdown’ completed her project to repair and build up the edge of a section of a bed to flatten the ground to stop water running off.

The eco-bricks were laid in a shallow trench, tops down, between garden edging. The row was finally covered over with soil to both strengthen the border and stop light degrading the plastic bottles. She has a secondary concern: what happens to this plastic when someone else takes over her garden? Will there then be better facilities to properly recycle this plastic? She has to hope so.

Sustainable Me: Image shows details of Ann Marie's lit-up lampshade in Closing the Loop's exhibition in the Barn, Banchory in Scotland: Waste plastic spice pots are connected with 3D printed widgets, designed using Anarkik3DDesign to specifically join the pots in a hexagonal matrix.
Lampshade Project: 3D printing & plastic waste

Another of Ann Marie’s personal recycling ‘Sustainable Me’ projects is the lampshade on display in the MATTER Exhibition. This lampshade utilises specially designed units, 3D printed in *PLA filament, to join waste plastic spice pots to make a cylindrical lampshade which can either be used as a pendant shade or as a table light. The top fittings for hanging the shade are bits left over from other lights.

Here is a link to a video showing the process: https://vimeo.com/736892967 and there are further images below.

Ann Marie’s approach is to use 3D printing to add value to waste products that would otherwise end up in landfill by making work that is a joy to have and own. The filament she uses for 3D printing is *PLA, polylactic acid, or polylactide, which is obtained from renewable and natural raw materials such as corn. The starch (glucose) is extracted from the plants and converted into dextrose by the addition of enzymes. This is fermented by microorganisms into lactic acid, which in turn is converted into polylactide. Polymerisation produces long-linked molecular chains whose properties resemble those of petroleum-based polymers.

The misconception** regarding the compostability of PLA is explained further down this post.

Sustainable Me: Image shows a screen capture of the widgets, designed using Anarkik3DDesign, to specifically join the waste plastic spice in a hexagonal matrix as can be seen in the previous image - details of Ann Marie's lit-up lampshade in Closing the Loop's exhibition in the Barn, Banchory in Scotland: These connectors are 3D printed in PLA, a polymer filament.

Image on right shows the digital designs for the 3D printed units. The programme used is Anarkik3DDesign, a haptic 3D modelling programme created by Ann Marie’s company, Anarkik3D Ltd, specifically for applied artists & designer makers to fit in with their making practice.

Image below: the red triangular units, 3D printed in PLA filament, each have three pegs to fix them onto three Simplycook throw-away spice pots and connect them all into a hexagonal matrix. The sheet of units is finally formed into a cylinder to make the lampshade.

Sustainable Me: Image shows the waste plastic SimplyCook spice pots that Ann Marie used to make her lampshade in Closing the Loop's exhibition in the Barn, Banchory in Scotland: Waste plastic spice pots are connected in a hexagonal matrix with the red 3D printed widgets, designed using Anarkik3DDesign to specifically join the pots together.

Ethical question: is it justifiable to produce plastic from food (https://www.3dnatives.com/en/pla-filament-230720194) given that the world population is continuing to grow and more and more food is needed?

“There is much debate about the total carbon, fossil fuel and water usage in manufacturing bioplastics from natural materials and whether they are a negative impact to human food supply. To make 1 kg of PLA, the most common commercially available compostable plastic, 2.65 kg of corn is required. Since 270 million tonnes of plastic are made every year, replacing conventional plastic with corn-derived PLA would remove 715.5 million tonnes from the world’s food supply, at a time when global warming is reducing tropical farm productivity.” In other words, if we switch to bioplastics, the fields for food will have to compete with those for plastics. 

**“All composting is always biodegradation, but not all biodegradation is composting”. “PLA can only be biologically degraded under industrial composting conditions.“Increased environmental impacts from micro-plastics can occur if more plastics are disposed of in the environment due to this communicated biodegradability.

In the wild, it takes at least 80 years for PLA to decompose (compared to 1000 for ABS), which means that in the sea and on land it contributes not only to conventional petroleum-based plastics but also to environmental pollution from plastics and above all microplastics. For this reason, PLA should not be thrown into nature, into home composters or into organic waste, just like other plastics. This leads us to the question of what happens to the PLA as soon as we throw it away.

PLA itself can be recycled. However, Florent Port notes, “There is currently no official collection of PLA waste from 3D printing. In fact, the current plastic waste channels make it difficult to distinguish PLA from other polymers such as PET (water bottles), and the contamination of these materials with PLA affects recycling. Technically, PLA is therefore recyclable provided that the collection consists exclusively of PLA, without contamination by other plastics.”

The next post is about her ‘Lockdown’ Project – 3D printing on fabric and other stuff. Some of her exploratory test pieces can be seen in the MATTER exhibition and her 3D printed jewellery seen here.

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OK. What do you think about men wearing jewellery? Generally.

Men wearing jewellery: Terry sporting a large grey pin to complement his lovely jacket.

This is Terry sporting a statement pin to complement his gorgeous jacket. We think he looks stunning.

We also loved that Shaun Leane, one of the two judges for ‘All That Glitters: Britain’s Next Jewellery Star’, wore different pieces of his own designed collection at each session. The earrings that he wore are so much more interesting, imaginative and distinctive than much of jewellery advertised for men. I would expect this of Shaun Leane as a designer who has worked with Alexander McQueen – but his jewellery is very discreet compared to Terry’s pin.

Are more men wearing jewellery?

This quote is from a BBC article in 2019: ‘In recent years, the codes governing masculinity have been loosening up, and with this the traditional lines between masculine and feminine fashion are blurring. Although jewellery is conventionally a female domain, we’re now seeing men experimenting with it more than ever before.’ https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190924-why-more-men-are-wearing-jewellery.

This article includes a great pic of Chadwick Boseman wearing not one but three diamond encrusted Tiffany & Co brooches. He can comfortably be a ‘free-wheeling trend setter’ as his masculinity is not threatened in any way.

Looking further into the topic of ‘men wearing jewellery’, in his video Tim Dessaint talks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc_W7FTEngU) about having an edgy style and ranking ones-self between 1 and 10. I consider his suggestions pretty conservative, even taking account of his pearl necklace (very Margaret Thatcher). I’d put him in the edgy range of just 3 to 5, Shaun about 6-7, and Terry and Iyke at 8!

The BBC article mentioned above goes on to quote Harriet Scott and David Mills of the Goldsmiths’ Company who say that men are looking for more and “higher quality precious pieces  …. And they expected then in 2019 the men’s jewellery market to expand for the foreseeable future.

To rank high on ‘edgy style’ there is no need to bust your budget because you can find exciting jewellery in non-precious materials that are well designed and sophisticated.

Has lockdown scuppered this cultural shift or accelerated it? Will lifting restrictions release men’s inner maverick and we see more flamboyant and expressive art jewellery complementing more casual and laid-back attire? Hope so. Will men still wear cuff-links, the dominant jewellery type advertised as men’s jewellery? Look forward to decent thoughtful comments which you can add below. (Spam will be deleted).

Here’s a short video of men trying out more adventurous jewellery. Be inspired and go for it!

The Path to Making Jewellery

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A mini-series of short stories by Designers and Makers.

~ Part 2 ~ Ann Marie Shillito – her Lockdown Project.

Creativity is so important for our mental health and wellbeing. Over the past year especially, we’ve all become so much more aware of this. Having something to focus on other than work and the news, gives a chance for our minds to declutter. According to the Zen Habits website picking up a creative hobby can contribute towards living a more fulfilling life.

Serious ‘play’.

The idea of full time crafts people having a creative outlet might seem strange, however having time to switch off from a work-based project to focus on something just for our own enjoyment is invaluable. Creative ‘play’ can often lead us to new ideas and developments, ‘that project’ that we’ve been putting off for 6 months (or perhaps 6 years!) can finally get some attention. The path to making jewellery is no different, time off to play is needed.

Creativity in lockdown 2020
The path to making jewellery: Ann Marie Shillito’s lockdown project: 3D Printing onto lace.

Ann Marie Shillito uses a wide range of materials combined with 3D Printing to make her jewellery. Early in the U.K.’s first lockdown she took the opportunity to experiment with repurposing materials found in her home, and her 3D Printer. Ann Marie had seen other designers 3D print elements onto fabric before and wanted to try this herself.

Creativity in lockdown 2020
Ann Marie Shillito’s Digital 3D model on her Cloud 9 software.

Digital to 3D model and beyond.

The digital 3D model needs to be ‘sliced’ for the 3D printing process. This requires the model to be prepared and Ann Marie uses Ultimaker’s Cura software that formats the model’s file by converting it into gcode which describes the slices. The 3D Printer prints the slices, and builds layer upon layer of material with precision. The result is a physical 3D model. Read on here to find out more about this process in detail.

A sample of Ann Marie Shillito’s lockdown project.

Creating a wearable object.

Ann Marie chose to use lace for this project as the 3D Printer filament needs to get through the intricate holes in the lace, which fixes the layers into the 3D form realy well. The design aesthetics of the lace provides a beautiful contrast between both elements.

This finished brooch has lace fabric firmly fixed inbetween the pink filament layers. Beautiful!

Ann Marie Shillito’s wearable lace and 3D Printed brooch with a steel pin.

To create jewellery that can be worn lovingly, Ann Marie experimented with this process further to secure different fabrics and materials into the Print.

The path to making jewellery can create a lot of waste or excess materials. Ann Marie has been collecting and using the scrap filament from her 3D printer and repurposing it for future jewellery designs. This piece has been made by gently melting together plastic filament strands with a household iron and 3D printing onto it.

Ann Marie Shillito’s 3D Printed model and repurposed excess filament sample.

So looking forward to seeing more of the results of the lockdown project and repurposed materials from Ann Marie!

To see her current jewellery collections in store, please visit our shop here.

~Anarkik Creations~

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3D Printed jewellery with a twist.

3D printed jewellery
Birgit designing jewellery using Anarkik 3D software

Birgit has an incredible gift for creating 3D printed jewellery that is a little bit different. Playful, quirky and full of character, she often uses Anarkik 3D software to design her pieces, 3D Prints her models and hand finishes them with colourful dyes.

Video below of Birgit’s Anarkik Creations jewellery:

“What keeps coming back in my work, and which has become very important for me, is the strong, pure line. Through form, in which my ideas are expressed, apparently I strive for a certain aesthetic. I love to be playful and humorous, I work with projects and choose subjects which move me. I hope to share my passion with others.”

Birgit laken
3d printed jewellery

Links to more of Birgit’s work:

To see Birgit’s full Anarkik Collection visit here.

For her website including photography, jewellery and fine sculpture visit here.

Did you like this post? Please leave a comment below 🙂

Thank you ~

Lizzie – Anarkik Creations Team

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Exhibition at Double Doors Studios, June 2021

100 Jewels By 100 Women
Photography by Jody Mitchell @jojo_kibo

To say we are pretty excited is a bit of an understatement. Restrictions are easing up in Scotland, and three of the Jewellery Designer/ Makers associated with Anarkik Creations Jewellery are taking part in an exhibition. Even more exciting, and all being well it will be an in-person exhibition! ‘100 Jewels By 100 Women’ hosted by Dundee’s newest creative enterprise and exhibition space Double Door Studios will celebrate 100 talented craftswomen who have worked, studied or lived in Dundee, Scotland, by showcasing 100 pieces of their jewellery.

Who:

Jewellery Designer/ Makers Ann Marie Shillito, Lizzie Armour, and Genna Delaney will have a unique piece of jewellery each in the exhibition. Just to make things a little bit different, we have been asked to include a little story or fact about ourselves, this will be on display alongside our work. With another 97 jewels and stories to see on display, you’re in for a real treat!

  • Ann Marie Shillito
  • The path to making Jewellery
    Lizzie Armour
  • Genna Delaney

When?

Diaries at the ready! The exhibition will run every Wednesday – Sunday from the 2nd of June, until the 27th of June 2021. A whole 15 days to make Dundee a priority visit. In addition to the ‘100 Jewels By 100 Women’ exhibition, Dundee’s creative community has so much to offer. The McManus Galleries & Museum is on the door step of Double Doors Studios. The V&A Museum is a hop off the train, and right around the corner is Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Double Doors Studios – Image from DDS website

Where:

Double Doors Studio is located on 7 Ward Road, Dundee. Just down the street from DC Thomson (creators of local hero Desperate Dan!) and the 153 year-old McManus Galleries & Museum. Visit here for further visiting details, location and opening hours: http://100jewels.uk/index.php/visiting-info/

What if… I can’t make it in person?

We’d really love for you to be able to visit the exhibition in person. But don’t worry if you can’t! Thanks to funding from Creative Scotland, all of the pieces will be able to be viewed online and in print too.

How much does it cost?

The exhibition is FREE of charge 🙂

Follow:

Double Doors Studios on Instagram: @doubledoorstudios

Thank you so much to Double Door Studios for organising the 100 Jewels by 100 Women exhibition. We can’t wait to see you in June!

Lizzie Armour – Anarkik Creations Team x

Love this post? Please leave a comment below 🙂

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From bumble beginnings..

“For many years I have admired, bought and been gifted Ann Marie’s work. From her early titanium earrings, brooches and necklaces to her current 3D Printed jewellery. The honey bee pin with it’s very life like bee sitting on honeycomb is possibly my favourite piece in all of my collection.” 

honey bee pin
Honey bee pin by Ann Marie Shillito
Protecting our beeautiful world.

Ann Marie Shillito is an established Jeweller based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work has changed over time but her values as a person and a designer are rooted in causes for protecting our environment. She is part of the Applied Arts Scotland (AAS)/Creative Infomatics ‘Closing the Loop’ project group supporting the Circular Economy, a new maker-led research group exploring gaps in current materials knowledge and application of sustainability tools and practices in the studio. If you would like to read more, please click here. 

honey bee pin
Honey Bee Pin by Ann Marie Shillito

Inspired by bees hard at work polinating, she designed and made a statement Honey Bee Pin with 6 bees on a honeycomb base as a bespoke commission, gifted to a beekeeper.

honey bee pin
Beespoke jewellery and saving our pollinators

With the agreement of the bee brooch owner, Ann Marie has created smaller Honey Bee Pins for any occasion. A percentage from sales of the pin going to support charities fighting to protect all our wee polinators. More information here about this support.

“It provides a talking point when I wear this pin. I use it to talk about how important bees are in the natural world and to human survival. From there I move on to persaude anyone with a garden to kept it insecticide free, as I do.”

honey bee pin

“It is intrinsically beautiful in its design and colours and can be worn whether I am in my gardening trousers or going to a party.”

repurposed packaging
Honey bee pins in repurposed plastic boxes. Designed to display and stay secure for sending.
Beespoke boxes

Ann Marie repurposes clear plastic tubs from Simply Cook and makes 3D Printed bases to create these wonderful cases! It will protect your bee in the post and it means that Ann Marie reuses her plastic to help protect our environment. You can use the case as a great display box too.

To purchase your very own bee pin, please visit our shop here.

Did you like this post? Would you like see more bee jewellery designs from Ann Marie? Let us know in the comments below 🙂

Lizzie – Anarkik Creations Team -x-

 

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Behind the scenes and jewellery with Anarkik Creations Jeweller, Ann Earls Boylan.

Ann Earls Boylan Contemporary Jewellery

Herstory

The history of women working from home is rather complicated. Before the industrial revolution in the U.K., it was common for women to run their businesses, or employment directly from the household.  “Engaged in cottage-based industries such as spinning and weaving or plied their trades from workshops that were either in or attached to domestic dwellings. Many married couples ran inns and coffee houses or kept shops. In all cases, no line was rigidly drawn between ‘home’ and ‘work’.” – Dr Helen McCarthy https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/complicated-history-women-working-home/  

Ann Earls Boylan Contemporary Jewellery
Anne Earls Boylan in her home studio/ kitchen.

Now the lines are blurred for a large portion of the world working from home. For creative business owners, moving from face-to-face engagement with customers to online exclusively was a drastic switch for many during the past year.

Working in a domestic space.

Does the environment influence the work that creative practitioners produce?

“Having my workspace in my kitchen and laundry room feeds into my interest in topics to do with working women. Now as opposed to historically, or in the future. It’s just a state of who and what we are now.”

Ann Earls Boylan Contemporary Jewellery

Anne Earls Boylan is a jewellery designer/ maker based in Northern Ireland. She teaches on the jewellery and silversmithing course at Ulster University, and she has her own practice which she set up at home, pre-pandemic. Curiosity of materials and ethics influence her work and how the jewellery can be worn on the body. Social and political issues influence her conversational jewellery pieces.

Ann Earls Boylan Contemporary Jewellery
Anne Earls Boylan Contemporary Jewellery

Women’s work now.

Anne’s most recent jewellery pieces reflect on the notion of working from a domestic space in a subtle way. Through form, materials, colour, and the tools she uses to make her jewellery. She is intentionally resourceful; this has led Anne to create jewellery using any material product found in the home which she thinks might ‘work’. From steaming wood over the cooker, to repurposing polishing lids and cleaning products.

Much like any other material Anne deems useable, she considers plastic to be a precious commodity. “I want to see if I can find a soul in plastic. Can I find a soul in polyurethane that makes it covetable?”

Her intentions to turn limitation of materials, space, and equipment into a positive, has resulted in producing beautiful and conversational pieces around contemporary jewellery.

“What is women’s work? Why do we have to have a workshop, and is our domestic workshop good enough?”

Packaging with purpose.

Anne is developing packaging for her latest 3D Printed jewellery. She considers both the sustainable and political implications of using and sourcing materials, she repurposes objects found in her home and at the same time, designing 3D printed wearable objects.

In Anne’s video above she demonstrates one of her new rings which nests perfectly into repurposed egg box packaging. As a result, the jewellery and packaging are the antithesis of each other, and yet go so well together. Which is what I have found to be fascinating about Anne Boylan’s work.

To see more from Anne’s latest jewellery work and get in touch with her, visit her page here.

Did you enjoy this article? Please leave a comment below and feel free to share it. We’d love to hear from you! 🙂

~ Lizzie, Anarkik Creations Team

Bud Earrings by Ann Marie Shillito, 3D printed in polyamide and dyed orange, matching accessories

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Soft forms and bold colours

For new beginnings and brighter days

Crocus buds

Written by Lizzie for Anarkik Creations.

Spring is upon us! I love seeing the shoots and flowers starting to appear outside. Are you looking forward to warmer weather and lighter mornings? In this blog post I thought it would be appropriate to share Ann Marie Shillito’s pieces which inspire joy; The Bud jewellery Collection.

The Bud Jewellery Collection earrings
Sunshine Yellow Earrings are made with silver posts and secure earring backs.

Each piece is light-weight, hand-finished, with silver posts and fastenings, by Ann Marie herself, in her home-workshop.

The Bud Jewellery Collection matching pendant and earrings
Funky Pink earrings and pendant from Ann Marie Shillito’s Bud Collection

The Bud pendant design includes a magnetic fastening, making them easy to wear and to put on.

Click below to see our video with just some of the colours available:

Ann Marie Shillito and the ‘Bud’ jewellery collection

We love to see photos of you wearing your new jewellery! As makers this is definitely one of the perks of the job.

The Bud Jewellery Collection
Laura wearing the Bud earrings

Ann Marie designed this collection using Anarkik3DDesign 3D modelling software and 3D Printing. How does she make her jewellery? Visit here for her story and the process behind her work.

Shop

Jewellery from the ‘Bud Collection’ is available here in a range of vibrant colours. If you have any special requests about colours or sizes we can put Ann Marie in touch with you.

Get in touch

If you love the ‘Bud’ jewellery, or have any questions, please leave a message below. We’d love to hear from you! 🙂

Thanks – Lizzie

Anarkik Creations writer

The Bud Jewellery Collection

Ann Marie Shillito is the founder of Anarkik Creations. Based in Edinburgh, she works from her home-studio, designing and making unique and colourful jewellery.

In this image Ann Marie is wearing her own Bud neckpiece and earrings, and a linen dress by Somerset-based designer Terry Macey. Behind her you can see some of the wonderful colours and fabrics he uses you can see more of his fabulous clothing range here .

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