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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

: Developing this set, I had the design of medieval defensive suits in mind. Basically, I asked "what if I extend personal armour design to jewellery pieces?".

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

: My team studied raw textures a lot, in order to reconstruct the rough appearance of hard metal. Actually, more than 30 examples of textures were created before we found the convenient one. To increase the impression, we used leather laces, gold-plated chain and other additions.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

: It's currently exhibited in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. In future, we are expecting further expositions.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

: Sketching and research took about 1 month. About 6 more weeks it took to produce 9 rings.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

: It was the query from the State Historical Museum to British Higher School of Art and Design. Our artwork now is a part of the exposition of "Handsome man" exhibition which is dedicated to men's fashion history.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

: These series will be produced in limited edition as such gallery-oriented stories are very labour-consuming.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

: The request from the Museum had fortunately matched the topic of interest to me: medieval armor is something connected with history and men's suits.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

: Sure, old armour pieces are design objects themselves, as well as any brutal men's contemporary jewellery come as a reference.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

: Rather collectors that consumers I guess. But, occasionally, most of the rings are comfortable to wear.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

: While the idea of weapon/shield-like jewellery is not unique, our rings set are consciously designed with medieval armour in mind, paying great attention to the references.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

: It directly points to the reference, explaining the brutal rough appearance of the rings.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

: 3D-modelling software, first of all. Then metal casting, welding, texturing with hammers and metal shavings and blackening.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

: It is historically truthful as well as ergonomically considered.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

: Each member of the project team has a narrow specialization: Yuri Zotov is a technologist, Darya Kozlova is a jeweler, and together with Katerina Komova we acted as designers and 3d-modellers.