
It’s rare for a Christmas card to engage anyone for longer than it takes to open it, read it, maybe smile, and pop it up on the shelf with the others until they all get taken down with the rest of the decorations. This year, there was one notable exception. JAILmake sent me a brass snowflake. It came with a little note on tracing paper that said “Merry Christmas from JAILmake x” and then in tiny writing underneath, “This snowflake it totally unique. To see how it was made, go to jailmake.com and click on studio.” Well, I couldn’t not, and before I knew it I was watching a video documenting the whole process and tweeting the lovely boys at JAILmake to ask permission to share it with you here…
They say, “Real snowflakes are structured according to tiny changes in temperature and humidity. Each arm grows individually, resulting in a slightly asymmetrical shape. Each of our snowflakes is hand drawn and then processed through custom designed software to adjust and manipulate the strict vector lines to that of a more natural asymmetrical form, mirroring the nature of actual snowflake formation. The drawings are processed through CNC technology, the programme prompts the machine to cut rounded smooth edges and distorted holes, resulting in slightly warped shapes and giving the snowflakes a ‘melting’ effect.”

I say, “Happy holidays!”
Further reading for the especially geeky:
