Bird of Paradise Inspired Ear Cuff

This is a 3D fashion project that weighs heavily on the influence of natural surfaces and organic development. The house I've been staying at for college has two beautiful bird of paradise plants out front and their unique form has always caught my gaze. This project brings the natural form of the bird of paradise plant through a rollercoaster of different software to develop an entirely unique ear cuff.

This project is created as a course assignment at the California State University, Long Beach; taught by Behnaz Farahi: DESN 551: Materials, Tools, and Techniques of Prototype.

Each task in this project weighs on the expertise of a variety of applications. In this Instructable, I'm going to walk through the actions made in each software.

The Bird of Paradise also known as Strelitzia reginae originates from South Africa. An evergreen, the plant can bloom year-round. When this happens, the plant's petals unwind from a uniquely formed leaf, presenting beautiful shades of orange and blue. The blue portions are petals and the orange are sepals. This layout which has an uncanny resemblance to tropical birds gave way to its infamous name, Bird of Paradise.

Knowing I wanted to pursue a form related to the Bird of Paradise, I utilized the use of Mid Journey to formulate inspiration for the project. I pursued several directions including shoes, bags, and rings.

What is Mid Journey? Mid Journey is a tool that creates high-resolution images through text prompts. The program which runs through a Discord bot has a free trial but is most efficiently run through a $30 a month plan. While this will add up over time, users can opt out of the month-to-month option to pay in one-month increments.

While exploring directions for the project, I kept thinking of how the slight "L" shape in the flower's form could frame the ear nicely. Due to this itch, I pursued a collection of ear cuff prompts through Mid Journey and really enjoyed the potential direction of forms. With a more defined focus, I upscaled two models to give me a better insight into the AI's design choices through the Bird of Paradise influence.

To bring a form to life similar to the designs made in Mid Journey, a scan must be made of the real deal. According to my homeowner, the most efficient way to trim one of the Bird of Paradise plants is with a saw. Swiftly, I was able to pick out a recently bloomed section for scanning. With good lighting, the Scaniverse application enables a device's Lidar to effectively scan an object. In this step, I ran into a few issues with getting the scan to depict the incredibly thin and delicate petals. In the end, I scanned them separately from the flower to receive the best result.

Scaniverse: Free in the App Store

Once happy with the results from Scaniverse, the file is brought over to the computer where it is then cleaned in Autodesk Mesh Mixer. While the Lidar tries its best to create a form similar to what is physical, there are data points that create floating objects and other unwanted developments. This program has the ability to inspect, fix, and fill mesh bodies which are needed as the scan is hollow.

Mesh Mixer: Free through MeshMixer.com

Once the Bird of Paradise forms were touched up in Mesh Mixer, I wanted to bridge the gap between my organic scans and the Mid Journey development. To do so, I created a side profile of a woman in Mid Journey who would become my model. With this as a backdrop, I cut and rearranged screenshots of the Bird of Paradise 3D model to create an appealing form with a similar layout to my AI results.

Photoshop: $20.99 a month

Based on the mockup in Photoshop, I moved to Rhino 7 to create the 3D ear cuff. Using a proportionate head model, I arranged the parts of my Bird of Paradise into shape. While ear cuffs utilize many different methods of securing themselves to the ear, I opted to use a sunglasses-styled clip that would hook over the ear to support my form. To achieve optimal results, I used the intersect tool to outline the perfect path needed to wrap the model's ear.

Rhino 7: 90 free trial or a $995 one-time payment

The path created in Rhino 7 was then enhanced through a series of splines in Solidworks. This step is doable in Rhino however my experience in the platform is minimal. Perfecting this path is extremely important to the integrity of this project as it will act as the supporting structure to the entire form.

Solidworks: Hobby edition is $9.99 a month or $99 a year

With a completed model, I printed the ear cuff out using my Ender 3 Pro 3D printer. This printer uses filament which makes forms using melted plastic. While the print is slightly rough, its form is true to the 3D mockup in Rhino.

Using the preliminary 3D print, the sizing for the clip proved successful as seen by my roommate. This brings the project closers to reality and allows a better grasp of proportions. The section at the bottom of the ear was a little long in my opinion so it will be reduced in the final model.

The model then was sent over to Nomad Sculpt on the iPad where it was painted in similar colors to the real-life Bird of Paradise. Once finished, it was brought over to Keyshot for optimal realization of the project. While I was happy with the results, they lacked the appeal presented by the colors in Mid Journey.

After running into problems during the painting process in Nomad, I learned of an option to paint the model in Procreate. In the most recent edition of Nomad Sculpt, an option to export a UV map into Procreate was made possible. This allows the amazing library of painting tools to be utilized directly on my ear cuff model. Taking influence from the darker shades of green from the AI, I believe I created a more balanced color result that enhanced the ear cuff without taking away the integrity from its natural form.

Using the UV color mapping from Procreate, the model was able to be printed with accurate colors using my college's Stratasys J750 Polyjet 3D printer.

Thank you for making it through my Instructable!