Every piece made at Spruce Crest Path starts on paper. The paper has a grid on it, specifically an isometric grid, which divides the plane into 60-degree triangles rather than 90-degree squares. That choice of grid is not arbitrary. It determines which angles are available, which proportions feel right, and which shapes can be cut from flat sheet metal without waste.
What an isometric grid is ¶
An isometric grid is a triangular grid where every line with at 60 degrees. The basic unit is an equilateral triangle. From that unit you can build hexagons, rhombuses, truncated triangles, and a range of other shapes that all share the same underlying proportional logic. The grid is common in technical drawing and in certain traditions of tile design. For jewellery, it is useful because the shapes it generates are geometrically consistent: every angle is a multiple of 60 degrees, which means pieces in the same collection relate to each other visually even when they are different shapes.
Drawing on the grid before touching metal ¶
The design process starts with a printed isometric grid at 5 mm spacing. Shapes are drawn in pencil, adjusted, redrawn, cut out as paper prototypes, and pinned to the wall. A design is not transferred to metal until the paper version has been worn or handled enough to confirm the proportions. For a pendant, that means checking the hang angle, the weight distribution, and the way the shape reads from a metre away. For a ring, it means checking the width against the finger and the bevel angle against the light. Paper is cheap and fast. Metal is neither.
The 60-degree constraint and why it is useful ¶
Working within a 60-degree grid means that certain angles are simply not available without breaking the system. 22 degrees, which appears in the offset square pendant, is an exception arrived at by working outside the grid deliberately. Most pieces stay within the grid. The constraint is useful because it removes a large number of decisions. You are not choosing from every possible angle; you are choosing from 60, 120, 30, and their combinations. That narrowing of options tends to produce more coherent results than working without constraints.
Translating the grid drawing to sheet metal ¶
Once a design is settled on paper, the dimensions are transferred to sheet metal using a scribe and a steel rule. The scribe line is 0.1 mm wide, which is the working tolerance for the cut. The saw frame used here is a Knew Concepts frame with a 2/0 blade, which cuts a kerf of about 0.2 mm. The cut is made just outside the scribe line and the edge is filed back to it. This two-step process, saw then file, gives a cleaner edge than trying to cut exactly to the line in one pass.
Why the grid shows in the finished piece ¶
The isometric grid is not visible in the finished piece in any literal sense. But the proportional relationships it generates are visible. The angles are consistent. The shapes relate to each other. A hexagon pendant and a triangle earring from the same collection share the same underlying geometry, which is why they work together without being matchy. That coherence is the practical result of starting from a grid rather than drawing freehand.
The grid notebooks from 2017 to the present are kept on the studio shelf. If you visit on a Thursday, you can look through them. The drawing process is also covered in notes from the bench.