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AN INTERVIEW with Tom Rucker
(last revised November 2014)
Master Goldsmith Tom Rucker is an award-winning jeweller internationally renowned for his
precision craftsmanship, superlative designs and pioneering use of the laser to make exquisite
bespoke items in Gold, Platinum and precious stones. In the following interview, Tom Rucker
answers some common questions about his work:
Q: What is laser spot welding and why do you use it?
A: The word laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
(LASER). Laser spot welding gives the jeweller another tool in which to join metal.
Traditional methods to manufacture jewellery use an open flame whereas spot welding allows
precision joining with little heating of the overall piece. This allows greater creative freedom.
I employ the use of the laser alongside high level traditional Goldsmithing techniques to
create unique high end pieces.
Q: What is the GEO.2 technique and how long did it take you to develop it for making
jewellery?
A: In 1996, I began to develop a unique laser welding technique I later named GEO.2. I drew
my inspiration from the American architect and visionary Richard Buckminster Fuller who
came up with the idea of a Geodesic Dome in the late 1960’s. His aim was to create huge
structures using the least amount of material. The results were feather light but super strong
mega structures that are now predominantly found in aeronautical and architectural fields.
Likewise, the structures created in my work are extremely strong.
It took me over 17 years to develop the alloys and materials that I use today. In 2004, my own
formulated Platinum alloy 950 was approved for use the the London Assay Office and is of
British Hallmarking quality. An 18ct rich yellow Gold alloy followed in 2010.
Q: How do you name your pieces?
A: When I was a child I loved watching television programs such as Space 1999, Star Trek
and Captain Future. Most of my designs are inspired by space and science fiction and
therefore I like to give my pieces names of star constellations and planetary systems. For
example, GEO.AEGAEON is one of Saturn’s natural satellites and GEO.GANYMEDE is one
of Jupiter’s moons.
Q: Tom, you seem to draw a lot of your inspiration from architecture…
A: When I was about to leave school in the mid eighties, my dream was to become an
architect as I hadn’t yet decided on a goldsmithing career. However, having been exposed to
this craft being the 4th generation of a well established goldsmithing family in Munich, I
eventually went down this path and discovered a love of making precision work by hand in
precious metal and I realised I could reflect my love of architecture within my designs.
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I was thrilled to bits when I learned earlier in 2014, one of my recent pieces, the ring
GEO.AEGANA was selected by world renowned architect Zaha Hadid for a specially curated
exhibition. Zaha alongside Lord Foster and Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983) are my
three icons! A lot of my inspiration and motivation comes through their work and spirit they
create in architecture: sophisticated geodesic mega structures.
This year I can also claim Allegra Fuller Snyder, Richard Buckminster Fuller´s daughter and
only living child, is the proud owner of a GEO.SPHERE necklace. That fills me with pride
and means a lot to me!
Q: According to your website, you have developed some unique methods of manufacture
and customised your laser equipment to work with Platinum as well as Gold. Can you
describe in more detail the process you use to make your work?
A: In order to work with the various precious metals and alloys, such as Platinum and Gold, it
is essential to choose the correct joining or soldering materials. Conventional jewellery
making techniques rely on using an open flame to join material and each metal has its own
unique melting point, requiring its own unique soldering material.
With laser spot welding, a Gold alloy requires significantly higher laser welding power
compared to Platinum, requiring multiple and more powerful ‘pulses’ and is more labour
intensive as a result. In order to work with this technology, I have developed custom Platinum
and Gold alloys that work specifically with his technique and pioneered a method in which to
join these alloys to create bespoke luxury pieces using the laser.
Q: The circle is a shape you use often in your work. Is there any reason for this?
A: I believe that the circle is the perfect shape. Aristotle wrote in the `Physica´ that the circle
was "the perfect, first, most beautiful form." Cicero stated in `The Nature of the Gods´ that
“Two forms are the most distinctive: the sphere and the circle” and the Renaissance architect
Sebastiano Serlio said: “the round form is the most perfect of all.”
Q: Looking through your collection I noticed the majority of your work is made of
Platinum or contains a significant proportion of it. Why have you choosen to focus on
this white precious metal?
A: Platinum is aptly described as pure, rare and eternal. Only a small amount is being
sourced under incredible effort. According to some geologists resources will start to decline in
about 20 years from now for commercial mining. This makes Platinum the most luxurious
and therefore most exclusive precious metal today being used for jewellery.
Q: What makes Platinum so different and special to work with?
A: Platinum requires a totally different set of tools and machinery as well as specialised
working techniques. Although I had the best possible Master, my father, who was highly
skilled in working with this extraordinary precious metal, it has taken me years to understand
why Platinum reacts completely differently compared to working in Gold or silver.
Q: Platinum and laser welding seems to be ideal companions in terms of working
properties. Why is that?
A: Platinum has very low heat conductivity. This means energy such as a laser beam applied
to does not spread through out the metal as it would with silver or Gold. This means the
energy of a laser beam works more locally and can therefor be set a lot lower compared to
Gold or silver. This allows me for example to laser weld structures directly onto or beside
heat sensitive materials such as pearls or precious stones.
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Platinum and its unique physical properties allow me to achieve very high end precision
which I would not be able to deliver with any other precious metals.
Q: When did you first explore working with Platinum?
A: Being the fourth generation of Master Goldsmiths in my family, Platinum has been an
interest for me from my very early steps. I can proudly claim the very first 'piece' I ever made,
it must have been sometime in the 1970’s when I was seven years old or so, was from
Platinum. I remember I sat at my father’s work bench and attempted to weld two jump rings
together. I still keep this 'lump' of Platinum in a little box with my kiddy’s handwriting on the
lid saying 'Tom's first piece'.
My great grand father who was also a Goldsmith in the Golden 1920’s must have been one of
the first Masters in Germany privileged to work with Platinum. Today, almost 100 years later,
I can say it's still a huge privilege and I can't see this changing in the future.
Q: Some of your designs use Golden pearls and natural Golden-yellow diamonds. What
other precious materials do you use?
A: Alongside my passion for working in Platinum I love working with the rich colours of
Gold and Golden coloured stones such as diamonds. I have worked hard over many years to
overcome the technical challenges of lasering 18ct Gold and my work continues to develop in
this area. Over the last few years, I have also been experimenting with an extremely rare and
difficult to work PGM Platinum Group Metal alloy which may appear in my work in the
future. There is more research and development to carry out in this area but I hope to be able
to launch something in the next couple of years.
Q: Please would you describe your use of and inspiration with the materials you use?
A: I really enjoy combining the warm shimmer of Gold and natural coloured diamonds, to
contrast with the cool sparkling effect of my GEO.2 Platinum structures. One of my larger
pieces, the multi award winning ring, GEO.SUPERNOVA for example, was made in polished
and matt finished Gold 750 and Platinum 950 and incorporates over three carats of carefully
selected natural fancy Gold-yellow and rare white diamonds. The design was inspired by a
giant stellar explosion – a Supernova - which marks the death of a planet and the beginnning
of a new life. The centre of the ring is a moving element, an open hemisphere turning on its
own axis. Eight Platinum wires laser welded into place hold a HRD certified Hearts &
Arrows
brilliant diamond tightly clamped. The reflection of the light falling into the brilliant
diamond appears to be magnified by the motion.
Another example of one of my designs is the GEO.SPHERE necklaces which is made from
perfectly round spheres in various sizes connected to each other with my so called 3D joints.
The GEO.MULTISPHERE necklace for example, consists of graduating sizes of sphere
starting from 12mm and going up to 18mm in diameter. The manufacturing time of such a
necklace adds up to several hundred hours of labour spread over two years, approximately
200 feet (60 metres) of 0.2mm thin Platinum wire cut up in to about 45,000 single pieces and
laser welded together with not less than 1.2 million single laser shots.
Q: Your work has been featured in many magazines and newspapers. Do you have a
typical client profile?
A: There are those clients who buy my pieces purely for the joy and pride of wearing one of
my designs. Some other clients collect my work because they appreciate the craftsmanship,
technique and philosophy behind my designs.
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At the end of the day I can say, my pieces may not be for the mainstream type of client but
rather for those individual and understated people who share my passion for perfectionism
and originality.
Q: What new projects are you working on now and when will you release it?
A: I have recently launched my largest project to date; a laser welded life size bust of Nelson
Mandela, made with Platinum, black diamonds and white Meissen porcelain. The piece
consists of almost two million single laser spot welds and took over a year to manufacture.
The sculpture is currently displayed at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, the premier
collection of contemporary art in South Africa. This sculptural work may form the first of a
future series of laser welded busts in Platinum of other world icons. Considering the
complexity of such an extensive work there is not yet a release date set.
Philanthropy is central to my work ethic and I am collaborating with the Western Cape and
Bavarian government to set up a program for jewellery design students of the College of Cape
Town allowing them to access laser welding technology. I am also working on some exciting
jewellery designs coming up in the near future using state of the art laser welding technology.
Q: I am interested in the real technology behind your work and noticed you are using
more Gold in recent years in your work. What are the differences if any of using Gold
compared to Platinum?
A: The individual melting points of the various precious metals and alloys are essential to
chosing the right solder materials and equipment. In jewellery making we traditionally solder
using an open flame. Laser welding doesn´t work like this. It has its own, very special rules.
Giving an example, Gold has a significant lower melting point (1063°C) compared to
Platinum (1774°C). It therefore requires approximately double the parameter settings to
achieve the same results. The key word in this process is heat conductivity. Gold has a very
high heat conductivity in contrast to that of Platinum, which is quite low.
In clear terms, it actually means the ability of Platinum to conduct the energy of the Laser
(Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is lower than Gold. The energy
does not spread very much to the surrounding enviroment and works more locally. Therefore
we need less (LASER) energy to melt and fuse Platinum with lasers compared to the energy
we need to melt and fuse Gold. As a result, laser parameter settings such as Voltage and
Milliseconds in relation to the Beam Diameter have to be significantly higher when laser
welding Gold compared to Platinum. Whilst Platinum is also more flexible to work with using
various settings, Gold will only work within a small tolerance. Gold requires multiple and
more powerful pulses. It also takes longer to cool down the work piece during the process
which also adds up to the labour. In general terms though, I regard myself as a Platinumsmith
who enjoys the challenge of mixing Gold and precious diamonds to create contrast in my
work.
Q: What have you undertaken to ease the effects of high heat conductive Gold alloy to
make it more suitable for your technique?
A: Looking closer on the elements with which Gold is usually alloyed, we find for example
130 parts silver and 120 parts copper in a 750 rich yellow Gold alloy. Both alloying metals
have an even higher heat conductivity than Gold already has. My aim has been to
reduce/replace those high conductive alloying metals and optimize their relation to the Gold
in order to make such a rich yellow Gold alloy less conductive, less reflective and easier to
use for my GEO.2 technique. There are a lot of points I had to bear in mind coming up with
my own formulated alloy such as health and safety, strength and hardness and last but not
least a pleasing and rich yellow colour.
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The reason I have only used Gold sparingly in the past was purely down to the fact it was so
much more time consuming to laser it than Platinum. With my own formulated Gold alloy I
have been able to soften this effect. However, it still is and will always be more tricky to work
with. Apart from this issue I can’t see any disadvantages to using yellow Gold for my
technique: it can be processed to arrive at a similar hardness like Platinum, the welding joins
have similar strength and durability and it has a warm colour pleasing to the eye.
Q: Having always had a romantic picture in my mind of how a jewellery designer’s
workshop must look, I was surprised to find something resembling the cockpit of a
spaceship! Can you please explain what the equipment and machinery in your studio are
used for?
A: I am very privileged to be able to work with state of the art laser welding equipment built
by a German high end manufacturer, Alpha Laser. You would not be surprised to find a small
laser welding machine such as an ALS100 in a high end jewellery workshop and I use this
machine for less intricate and less time consuming jobs.
The large industrial type laser welder, the ALPHA ALM200 was originally built for the
mould making and prototyping industry. Other than the smaller jewellery laser, it is an open
system which does not restrict me in terms of the size of the piece. Technically, I could laser
weld items the size of a car whereas, I am restricted to a shoe box size with the jewellery
laser. The most important advantage for me is the fact I can adjust my posture to the
machine’s extraordinary flexibilty which is not the case with a standard jewellery laser.
I have chosen to work from a bean bag as this surprisingly offers me the most
comfortable seat position. This allows me to spend up to eight hours laser welding per day
which would never be possible with a standard system. I can proudly claim I am the only
jewellery designer and maker worldwide working with such a sophisticated machine from a
bean bag!
Q: The use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs in combination with rapid
prototyping technology and traditional casting have become a significant new tool for
the trade. Are you using any of those new technologies to design and make some of your
pieces?
A: My laser welded structure GEO.2 cannot be computerised in any way. The surface quality
and overall structure I am aiming for would be impossible to achieve with any of those
technologies. My GEO.2 structure will always have to be manufactured entirely by hand
under a microscope. However, I can see potential in making limited use of CAD and
prototyping technology for some of my projects. Despite my interest and use of state of the art
laser welding techniques, I am very much an old school designer and maker and a strong
believer in handmade jewellery. I also believe I owe my clients a certain high standard and
finish which is difficult to achieve with those technologies.
Q: You have highlighted some of the issues that can arise as a result of prolonged use of
the laser. What do you do in your spare time to compensate and how long do you think
you can continue to do what you do?
A: Sitting in a small, dark room which has to be, for health and safety regulations, entirely
isolated from the outside, staring through a microscope and firing repeated laser shots into a
micro cosmos of geodesic structures is not just a huge strain for eyes and spine. It also isn’t
great for your mental health! It is important to find a counter balance to compensate for the
negative effects. These tend to consist of travelling, eating out in nice restaurants and strolling
through car boot sales on a Sunday morning. I have just started to explore the world of digital
photography and have acquired a professional camera which is my favourite toy at the
moment.
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I will not stop designing and making jewellery using laser welding techniques unless my eyes
and or mind give up. So far I have yet to identify a successor who is mad enough to control
this monster and one day I fear I will have to unplug my machines. I can only suggest to those
who are not yet the proud owner of one (or more) of Tom Rucker’s GEO.2 pieces not to wait
for too long!
ENDS
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PRESS INFORMATION:
IMAGES:
High resolution images of Tom Rucker’s work and laser equipment are available to download
from the download image area and free to use
http://tomrucker.co.uk/press-images/
For further information please contact:
Tom Rucker:
E: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)7747 861 676
Or PR Assistant:
E: [email protected]
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