To make up for longer lead times while we set up our manufacturing in NYC, we're offering a soft launch sale!
Protein Earrings
DNA encodes the instructions to make proteins, and it is for this reason that it is often referred to as the "language of life." This line of jewelry explores form as the product of a language-creating rule set consisting of a structural vocabulary and grammar.
Just as the vocabulary of DNA (the A, G, C, and T nucleotides) encodes the sequence of building-block amino acids in proteins, the 3D atom data fed into this model encodes the distribution of metaball point charges (picture soap bubbles) constituting the building blocks of the rendered earrings.
As the ultimate form and function of a protein is defined by subsequent grammatical rules (secondary structure defined by local spatial conformations (α-helices, β-sheets, turns), tertiary structure defined by 3-dimensional shape, and quaternary structure defined by associations with other proteins), likewise this model's input parameters form a grammar, which governs how neighboring soap bubbles meld.
Below are descriptions of each parameter, which will hopefully give you a better sense of how this model works. To really get an intuitive feel, we recommend just playing around with changing the structure and parameters here.
Radius:
This parameter changes the size of the distributed metaballs. It tends to be additively related to Charge Strength since larger radii bring metaball charges into closer proximity.
Charge Strength:
Charge strength determines the distance over which metaball charges interact. A higher value means that metaballs will meld into a single, contiguous object at greater distances. A lower value will preserve the spherical shape of metaballs in closer proximity.
Trim Tolerance:
Proteins are made of thousands of atoms which are, by definition, very close to one another. The model imposes a rule to trim neighboring atoms from the input data that fall within a certain distance. This parameter sets the distance or tolerance used to filter out neighbors. A higher value averages a greater number of atoms from the input data and a lower value maintains a greater number of atoms at their original positions.
Smoothing Passes
The metaball point charges are wrapped in marching cubes to create a mesh. This parameter sets the number of times to run the Laplacian smoothing algorithm on polygonal meshes. A higher value yields a smoother object. A lower value preserves more of the topological features that come from the metaball charges.
Scale
While earring findings (hooks, posts, etc.) remain constant, this parameter uniformly shrinks or expands the earring dimensions. You can place the earrings on a model (A Bust of Róża Loewenfeld by Carl Schlüter) to get a sense of the dimensions in context.