[3D Printing News] 3D Printing and Jewelry Boutiques: Successful Small Business Models

[3D Printing News] 3D Printing and Jewelry Boutiques: Successful Small Business Models

Cameron and Rebecca Stern are co-founders of Stern Design, who combine innovative traditional jewelry-making methods with the Ultimaker professional desktop 3D printer.
Every year, Stern Design sends thousands of original fashion jewelry pieces to online clients and local boutiques in North America, completely unafraid of the huge demand from the retail jewelry trade.

Stern Design is a multidisciplinary design studio that incorporates STEM concepts into the creation of fashion jewelry and accessories.
Their works use a variety of techniques, including traditional metalworking and 3D printing, to celebrate the intersection of science, technology, and art.
Their customers are influenced not only by the quality and complexity of the finished product, but also by Cameron and Rebecca Stern's passion for science and natural history.
Their most popular series are full of clever and fun themes and categories.



Fashion jewelry meets science, technology and art

"Our love of science and quirky history inspires our collection and continues to grow," Cameron Stern said.
In their design lab, they play with unique themes such as 3D printing and nylon miniature animals, magnified proteins, HeLa cells, flea circus props, etc., to determine which new pieces will add to the current seasonal collection or the studio's archives.


Printing Ultimaker 3 at Stern Design Studio

Visitors to their retail stores, boutiques, and online shops will soon discover that if you enjoy science, natural history, and imagination, Stern's designs have a fascinating aspect for you.
One popular design originated from a custom project by an organic chemist – a 3D-printed necklace of molecular lattice structure made from diamond components to resemble “real diamonds” for his wife.
Other orders included anatomically inspired (sweet) heart-shaped pendants and Tyrannosaurus Rex brooches, sine wave curved rings, and thumb-sized giraffe Dioramas.
Place it in a 20 ml glass beaker.

"The themes we design cover protein folding, museum 3D models, architecture, industrial design, art history, chaos theory, and the universe, which inspire us."

However, maintaining such a broad and diverse collection is a difficult challenge in itself. To ensure that dealers and retailers have enough stock to meet unpredictable customer demand, Stern Design Studio had to commit to production lines so that the team could start a new batch of hundreds of actively marketable items on their production floor.

Rebecca Stern works in their studio

Once manufactured, these parts must be shipped within days to locations far from California’s west coast, much like New York City’s own high-traffic areas, which may transport thousands of tourists daily during peak season.
This inventory demand can compete with many custom and handcrafted fashion jewelry pieces in the retail boutique market, and it has proven to be the inspiration for Stern's design team.
"We sell about 500 pieces of jewelry each month, but during our peak wholesale season and with our main clients, it can increase by up to 500 pieces per month."
"More than 2,000 pieces," Cameron said.

Desktop 3D Printer: The Jewelry Designer's Secret Weapon

One of the key secrets is that Stern Design has been able to maintain its diverse and rapidly expanding collection: a suite of Ultimaker desktop 3D printers for producing jigs, molds and metal castings, and an increasing number of ready-to-use 3D printed wearable artworks.


Rings created by Stern Design

Cameron and Rebecca have been experimenting with desktop 3D printers in their jewelry practice for some time, and say the Ultimaker printer was a production solution from Stern Design a few years ago.
Every generation of Ultimaker printers they tested proved to be a reliable, high-performance, high-resolution FDM printer, perfectly suited to their work and pipeline at every stage.

Ultimakers has started working for us because he can reliably get the printing done and it's ready to use right out of the box.

Rebecca explained: "Using 3D printing technology, you can do one or ten repetitive things, and you can have ten chances to try and get the perfect piece from the foundry."
Working with 3D prints and wax sheets takes only a quarter of the time.
During that period, Cameron added, "The best way is to draw up models or get orders from our wholesalers. This not only saves us time, but also the time we can actually use, which is the biggest saving."


Stern Design, together with their Ultimaker 2 Extended+, for event occasions

In addition to using them in their production studios, they also found that using desktop 3D printers in high-volume retail event venues could generate a good start to the conversation.
Thousands of visitors see their work and their workflow every day at their regular retail locations, including Chelsea Market in New York City and the artists' flea market in Williamsburg.
They discovered that parts could even be produced directly at retail locations, with the final product made on-site for sale, or taken back to the workshop for casting and post-processing.

Partner with manufacturing

While many jewelry designers have been trying to replace expensive traditional metal 3D printers with desktop 3D printers, Stern Design has invested the necessary research and testing to master the craftsmanship and production opportunities of the Ultimaker printer. They have worked closely with contract manufacturers and foundry partners, teaching them how to use desktop 3D printers with user-friendly printing materials such as PLA .

Thread the astronaut necklace through the chain

3D printers are not just for producing metal parts. They not only optimize the production process of castings but also simplify subsequent grinding, polishing, and finishing processes. Therefore, they can fully utilize the capabilities of desktop equipment, integrating new tools with traditional handcrafting techniques to produce items that truly combine metalwork and metal casting technology.

Ultimaker 3 : The latest tool in the studio

Recently, the Stern Design team added an Ultimaker 3 to their studio to enable printing with two materials.
Cameron stated, "Adding PVA support can greatly enhance our applications in 3D printing."
"We are excited to see that we can now produce our own designs."

Original link: https://ultimaker.com/en/stories/52477-3d-printing-and-the-jewelry-boutique-a-model-for-small-business-success