Staffordshire Hoard Replicas
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of over 3,500 items, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery.
When I worked at Birmingham City University I was asked to work on re-creating some of the objects using CAD (Computer Aided Design) Working on replicas of the hoard has to be one of the highlights of my career. I got to see and work with the pieces in the laboratories at the Birmingham Art Museum. The main idea was to create replicas of key pieces so they could be left on display in the museum whilst the real pieces were doing their rounds at various exhibitions.
One of the main pieces of the hoard is the ‘Folded Cross’. I was asked to re-create the cross as it would have looked originally, this would then be made as a gift to present to Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to Birmingham. What a task this was, where do you start? Well, what I did was take multiple photos of the folded item and use pieces of string for measurements, slowly building up a picture of how the cross would look unfolded and flat. I then translated that into my CAD software.
With CAD design completed, the piece was then printed in 3D and cast into metal. Garnets to match the originals were sourced and a silversmith then put it all together. As you can see, the end result was stunning. Take a look at the video featuring a nice piece about this on BBC news.
With some of the other pieces I used the process of Reverse Engineering. This involved laser scanning to gather data resulting in an almost identical shape to the original.
Then using this data I could then edit and perfect in my CAD system to create the perfect replica on screen. Then 3d printed parts could be made to get cast into metal. Again the silversmith would then do the magic stuff and finish it to being visibly as close as possible to the original.
Comentários