Women to Watch: Casey and Janine
CASEY & JANINE MELVIN, THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY
Dear Fearless Females,
This week, we are excited to introduce you to sisters Casey and Janine Melvin, founders of The Future of Jewelry. If you follow us on social media (I sure hope you do!) I’m sure you’ll remember the bridesmaids that I was fortunate enough to dress in red #Tuxshedos! The bride later ordered one for herself, too, and the ladies posed for some incredibly powerful photos to promote their REALLY COOL business … which I’m pleased to tell you more about now ...
With design executed by software and a digital manufacturing process built on 3D printing, THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY (TFOJ.com) offers signet rings that are tailored to the size and customizations of the wearer. The company combines a return to the possibilities of the old way of making jewelry with the speed and cost savings of the new.
The seed of the idea was planted while the sisters were spending a semester abroad at Oxford. They were hunting for matching souvenirs on a weekend trip to Spain when Janine spotted a gold signet ring she liked. The ring was too big for her fingers, but it did fit her sister. Casey bought it and had it engraved, with the thought that they would be able to easily find a match for Janine online. When that second ring proved elusive, the sisters began to explore options to make one themselves.
“That might have meant making molds and doing the etching manually,” Casey Melvin says. “We weren’t locked in on the 3D printing aspect initially; we were locked in on recreating the product we liked so much.”
As the two sisters began investigating different technologies, they learned that 3D printing could be used to quickly manufacture tooling for lost wax casting, without requiring a large investment in molds or manual labor.
The sisters realized they had found not only the answer to their personal quest for a duplicate ring, but also a more flexible and personal way for other customers to buy jewelry, too.
THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY: About the Signet Ring Design Platform
THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY team has developed a robust design tool for customizing jewelry in real time. The Signet Ring Design Platform is available from any device browser--no apps to download or registration--and requires no 3D modeling or jewelry design experience. The mission is to make the process of creating personalized pieces of jewelry easier, more affordable, and accessible to all.
THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY: Designing One-of-a-kind Pieces
The user-driven application enables customers to create unique signet ring designs by importing logos, personal drawings, and even text to the signet face and arms of the ring, and then visualize your design in real time. More than just a visual design tool for the consumer, this powerful platform enables our no-inventory business model by generating a 3D “CAD” (computer-aided design) file upon checkout, which we 3D print and use to create a one-of-a-kind ring.
THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY: Perfectly Sized
For many modern jewelry brands, producing rings in more than a few sizes is cost-prohibitive due to the expensive up-front cost of making metal molds. At THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY, each piece is made to order--allowing us to offer rings with diameters in 25 different sizes (to the ½ millimeter).
Learn more about THEFUTUREOFJEWELRY by visiting their website: tfoj.com.
Instagram: @thefutureofjewelry
As always, thanks for following along and for your support.
Fondly,
Yansi
