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G E M V I S I O N M AT R I X D E S I G N A W A R D S H O W C A S E
THE LION’S ROAR
Tri Nguyen wins first place for Technical Merit in the Matrix Design Contest
BY PEGGY JO DONAHUE
MJSA/Journal
U
50
lion for the cuff links that won him first place for technical merit
in Gemvision’s 2010 Matrix Design Contest. Due to harsh
Communist rule, many Vietnamese left their country after the
Vietnam War ended in 1975, and it took tremendous strength for
refugees to survive.
Nguyen arrived in Canada in 1983, after studying art and
working for his family’s jewelry trade business in Saigon. He
began in Toronto doing repairs, fabrication, modeling, wax carving, and gem setting before moving on to manufacturing opera-
tions. Today he is the head CAD designer at Innovative Design
Group (IDG), the CAD design and prototype modeling division
of Fantasy Gem Art in Mississauga, Ontario.
NATURE INSPIRED
“I have always been fascinated by wild animals and their survival
skills,” says Nguyen. For his lion cuff links, the designer studied
photos of lions in the wild and in sculptures, both in profile and
facing forward. One striking photo of a lion
roaring caught his attention and led to the
creation of his design.
“My intention was to build half of the
lion head first, and later mirror the other
half,” he says. “The trick is to know how to
draw the shape of the curves and the number
of control points that are needed on each
curve. There is a bit of trial and error
involved. When all the curves were in place to
form the lion’s head, I used the Matrix command network surface to create a full surface
from those curves.”
But, says Nguyen jokingly, “that was the
easy part.” The designer then had to patiently
manipulate the control points on the surface
of the half lion so he could make the head
more realistic in 3-D. Later, he added fur to
the lion’s face using the sweep command.
Nguyen designed two types of frames for the cuff links, one
plain and one decorated with antique leaves, with tiny screws that
allow them to be interchangeable. The cuff links were cast in 18k
yellow and white gold and accented with black rhodium. They
have been popular as a gift to men from the women in their lives.
Perhaps, speculates Nguyen, businesspeople like the lion’s defensive facial expression.
But for the former refugee who continues to thrive, these lion
cuff links are a true symbol of strength—and survival. ◆
IMAGE COURTESY OF GEMVISION.
se of the lion as a symbol of strength in art dates back to
15,000-year-old cave paintings in the Lascaux caves of
France. But in the modern world, the lion is often a vulnerable species, due mostly to habitat loss and conflicts
with humans.
It’s certainly understandable, then, that Tri Nguyen, who
arrived in Canada as one of the many Vietnamese boat people
who fled that country in the 1970s and 1980s, would choose a