Butterfly Pavé Pendant
Welcome to RhinoArtisan! In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the complete workflow for designing an elegant butterfly-shaped pavé pendant using reference images and RhinoArtisan’s dedicated jewelry tools. Starting from a 2D reference image, you’ll learn how to trace clean curves, build symmetrical geometry, and transform those curves into smooth, organic solids ready for gemstone setting and manufacturing.
We’ll cover surface creation from planar curves, controlled extrusions, curve optimization, and SubD refinement using QuadRemesh to achieve a soft, organic look. From there, you’ll add pavé stones to the wings, manually refine prongs, and finish the design with a central gemstone, custom basket, and a bail — resulting in a fully finished pendant ready for rendering or production.
📌 Looking for the reference file?
📌 What You’ll Learn: ✔ Importing and aligning a reference image for accurate modeling ✔ Tracing clean butterfly outlines using Curve and Offset workflows ✔ Creating surfaces from planar curves and splitting geometry precisely ✔ Extracting and fitting curves to optimize control points ✔ Placing gemstones with Gems on Curve and Pavé on Surface ✔ Manually adjusting prongs for decorative and functional detailing ✔ Building organic volumes using QuadRemesh and SubD conversion ✔ Creating and editing a custom basket for the center gemstone ✔ Cleaning geometry with boolean operations and surface repairs ✔ Designing and customizing a bail for a finished pendant assembly
📢 Why Watch This? ✅ Learn how to translate hand-drawn or client reference images into production-ready jewelry ✅ Master organic pendant workflows using curves, surfaces, and SubD tools ✅ Combine pavé setting techniques with decorative prong placement ✅ Build clean, watertight geometry suitable for 3D printing and casting ✅ Ideal for pendants, charms, and nature-inspired jewelry designs
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