Additive manufacturing and jewelry: a successful model for a small business

Cameron and Rebecca Stern, the innovative minds behind Stern Design Works, have masterfully combined the time-honored art of jewelry making with the cutting-edge potential of Ultimaker’s 3D printing technology.

Each year, their creative synergy results in thousands of intricately designed jewelry pieces that make their way into the hands of online shoppers and local boutique enthusiasts across North America. At its core, Stern Design Works is a multidisciplinary studio that seamlessly blends science, technology, and art into wearable masterpieces.

Additive manufacturing and jewelry: a successful model for a small business

Their collection of STEM-inspired jewelry and accessories is a testament to this unique fusion. By utilizing a mix of traditional metal craftsmanship and state-of-the-art 3D printing techniques, Cameron and Rebecca create stunning pieces that are as innovative as they are beautiful.

What makes their work truly stand out, however, is the duo’s infectious passion for science and natural history. This enthusiasm shines through in every collection, which often features thoughtful and playful nods to the wonders of the natural world and scientific discovery. Their dedication to quality and creativity captivates their customers, offering not just jewelry but pieces of art that tell a story.

Jewelry meets science, technology and art

“Our love of science and strange history has inspired our collections and kept them growing,” said Cameron Stern. In their design lab, they «play with 3D printing and miniature nylon animals, enlarged proteins, HeLa cells» and other unique ideas on their journey to identify new pieces to add to the current season’s collection or studio archive.

If science, natural history, and the power of imagination fascinate you, Stern Design Works offers creations that are sure to captivate. Take one of their most popular jewelry pieces today, for instance—a 3D printed necklace designed with a molecular lattice structure for a diamond. Initially conceived as a custom project for an organic chemist, he presented it as a gift to his wife, playfully pretending it was a real diamond.

The design studio draws inspiration from diverse topics such as protein folding, museum dioramas, architecture, industrial design, art history, chaos theory, and the mysteries of the cosmos. However, curating such an extensive and varied collection of active designs is no small feat. To meet the unpredictable demands of customers across retail channels, Stern Design Works embraced a streamlined manufacturing process. This approach enables them to quickly produce new batches of hundreds of items, actively created in their on-site production labs, ensuring they can always keep up with demand.

And once produced, the pieces must be shipped within a few days far away, on the west coast of California or very close, to their own stalls exposed to the heavy traffic of New York.

For this reason, many jewels cannot be personalized and handmade. Stern Design Works saw this as an opportunity.

“We produce about five hundred pieces of jewelry a month, but when it comes to the peak season and the bigger customers we have, demand can go up to two thousand or more pieces in a single month,” Cameron said.

3D Printers: A Jewelry Designer’s Secret Weapon

One of the key secrets that allows Stern Design Works to continue to maintain its diverse and rapidly expanding collection: a fleet of Ultimaker desktop 3D printers to produce metal-casting-ready jigs, molds and prototypes, as well as a growing number of ready-to-use parts.

Over time, Cameron and Rebecca experimented with 3D printers and a few years ago decided to use Ultimaker printers as a manufacturing solution for Stern Design Works. All generations of Ultimaker printers tested have proven to be reliable, high-performance, high-resolution FFF printers, perfectly suited to their work and workloads at every stage of business growth.

Ultimaker is perfect for us because it does exactly what it says it will do.

Rebecca explained: “With 3D printing, you can make one piece or ten pieces, it’s like you’re making one piece on a wax model.”

“And that time,” Cameron added, “is used to paint models or prepare orders.”

In addition to being used in the production laboratory, 3D printers have also been used in sales places, where the work process is visible to thousands of visitors every day.

Collaboration with production partners

While many jewelry designers have struggled with experiments to use 3D printers and replace expensive traditional wax 3D printers, Stern Design Works has done the research and testing necessary to master the manufacturing process of Ultimaker printers. They did this by working closely with printers and casting partners to educate them on approaches to working with 3D printing-friendly printing materials such as PLA.

The role of the 3D printer does not end with metal parts. They were concerned not only with optimizing the production phases of the castings, but also with thinking about how to simplify the process of grinding, polishing and subsequent finishing of the metal parts. As a result, they are able to exploit every aspect of their office equipment’s capabilities, integrating both new tools and traditional hand-forged jewelry manufacturing methods to produce truly hybrid techniques and metal casting techniques.