Punk Rock Science: how a spiky Radiolarian came to be a bestseller
Hands down the most popular item at Ontogenie is the Spumellaria design. Available in pendants, earrings and a desk sculpture, this design seems to captivate my customers more than any of my other pieces. The unusual concentric sphere structure of the Polycystinea class of Radiolaria, stabilized with interconnecting spikes (called spicules), was one of my first challenges when I decided to start designing 3D-printed scientific jewelry three years ago. It became my holy grail; if I can do this one, I told myself, then I can tackle any elaborate pattern that nature throws at me. Polycystine Radiolaria have been with us for 500 million years and their siliceous shells are a major component of the sediment on the bottom of...
