Warframe jewellery, want some? (Page 2)

[Rohice]

Heya,
I like making things. Some of those things I'll post in this thread. If you have comments criticisms or ideas feel free to let me know.

Who am I?

Spoiler

Since this is my first post in these forums I want to introduce myself. My name Is Raphael, I've been a technical Artist for 12 years and have recently rediscovered how much fun it is to make stuff with my hands. Occasionally I also post stuff to my instagram account @geekandgoldsmith

Some things I made: 

000: Lotus sign digital model - 3DsMax

001: Lotus sign - Oak wood with epoxy resin inlay

002: Focus lenses digital models - 3DsMax

003: Focus lens pendant prototype - Nickel-silver and epoxy

004: Lotus lens pendant digital model - 3DsMax

005: Stalker sign - Oak wood with resin inlay


Stay tuned for more.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Rohice

[Rohice]

Idea #1: The Lotus Sign

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I've been playing with this idea for a bit but hadn't gotten the final impetus to push it off. I wanted to make a small-ish lotus sign that could hang on a wall or door. Dimensions will be 15 x 9.4cm made from dark wood and a mother of pearl type inlay. 

So I started with the lotus sign in 3dsMax:

 

Iterated on it a bit until I had the one that I felt represented the onionLady with her many layers:

 

Layed it out and made a quick 3d model of it:

Put some textures on and rendered it:

So this is my rough target. I've had the wood for a few weeks and have already treated it. The texture is actually a photo of it. It's treated with Iron, basically pickled in a water based Iron solution to react with the <insert name of acid i don't know in english> which makes it dark and a little purple (fitting, I know 😉). The inlay I'll do with epoxy and some pearlescent pigments

Here's the materials: the treated Oakwood and pigment tests

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While working with the resin and pigments I had a nice idea tho: Orokin jewellery, a piece of the void captured and preserved, like a gem. 

Atm I'm waiting for the dremel router dealio to arrive

 

Edited December 25, 2018 by Rohice

[Autongnosis]

This looks like it'll be really cool once done, I'll be looking forward to it. As of now, good luck 😄

[Rohice]

Thx, it's the first time I'm trying to do an inlay, I'm curious how it turns out too, hehe

While waiting I decided to make something else to pass the time.. 
 

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Some focus lenses.. this is just a 3d mockup, the real one(s) are gonna be made from silver wire and pearlescent epoxy. 

 

 

[Rohice]

.. and a quick update: Here's where I had to stop for today

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[Rohice]

Hah! Today was certainly adventurous with my MacGuyver like toolset 😛 As you can see from the last picture, I was making 3 Pendants: Unairu, Vazarin and Zenurik. Good. So I started by polishing the outer rings using my dremel and some iron oxide suspended in wax. It worked great. I had already polished two of the three. Now as it came to the third one I relaxed for a millisecond.. and all I saw was a flash of silver. Gone. It slipped my fingers and zoomed off somewhere to the right into the depth of my workshop. Tried to find it again. No luck. 

No biggie, I still had two and they were already polished so I moved on to shaping and soldering the inside pieces using a 0.5mm wire. That was an exercise in frustration, since I couldn't get the solder pieces to stay in place, not enough surface area to rest on.. and using tweezers to put them on when it's hot was not working either since a teeeny tiny bump destroyed the entire layout. So I went back to 1mm wire and got creative, filing down a few grams of Nickel-Silver (40/60) and mixing them into the flux.. thereby making silver soldering paste. It's a primitive approach to a fancy solution but it worked a charm. Pretty soon I had the Vezarin and Unairu pieces soldered. On to polishing I went.

Did I learn anything from this morning tho? No. No I did not. As I was gently running the Vezarin "head" across the wheel it suddenly grabbed and *fffp it was gone like an eagle in the wind. Never to be seen again.  I swear I'm gonna put a piece of plexiglass onto a cardboard box before I do any other tiny pieces. 

I did however still have the Unairu one left, so I finished that to the point you can see below.
 

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My super fancy approach to silver-solder paste

The one that flew over the Cookoo's nest

All the pieces are in place

I did add a shot of liquid white to make it a bit more starry night and a little less Rorschach

 

Once it's cured I'm gonna sand the current "bottom" to widen the visible profile (round wires and all) and then do a lens like clear coat (surface tension) on it so it's an actual focus lens 😄 This is all so much easier in 3dsMax

[Autongnosis]

It looks really good, cheers 😄 Also respect for the flying focus symbols, they're off to a better place now. 

[Vosenedich]

I find it quite fitting that the focus symbols just void dashed away.

And let me say, I'm loving all of this, but now I want one of these as a pendant for myself, are you planning on selling these (or later iterations)? 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Vosenedich

[Rohice]

Thx guys 🙂 Heh, dashed away lol

If DE is cool with it I can sell a few. First tho I'll have to produce some of a decent quality. The first batch was a proof of concept and me getting to know the materials. I needed to see if resin was a viable alternative to enamel. It's way lighter and behaves differently with bigger pigments but overall it's good. So I started to make a few proper ones.. 

But first a post mortem of the first round:

Spoiler

 

* The outer diameter is a tad too large for the wire thickness used, decrease 2mm

* The sign itself should be made from 0.5mm wire
  * The round bends make it look like playmobile pyramids
  * Too samey with the outside
  * Don't need to sand down as far to get to the core in relation to outsides
    * No need to blend in the edges later

* Solder joint are sloppy, will use the paste I made to tack them, then reflow with an additional solid piece to fill any gaps

* Poured surface was uneven, don't use painter's tape as a ground

* Metal itself was poorly polished, gotta use multiple steps to get out toolmarks and scratches, not just polish over it

 

Now that I know what went wrong I started a second round and though I'd take you on a step by step journey of me making the pendants:
 

Spoiler

 

We'll start with a simple piece of wire, 1mm thick:


It does come quite springy so we gotta anneal it. That means heating it and letting it cool slowly to make it bendable.

Now we can start to bend it around something round. I'm using a ring-mandrel here. Start the rolling real tight, it's gonna be a bit lumpy and by stretching it we're gonna work those out into a nice smooth round.. ring-thing.

But first we gotta trim the ends a bit. You can't get the very ends all the way round so just *snip, snap* them off and you're not gonna poke your fingers when you stretch it.

When we're stretching you want to make sure to add some rotation aswell to give the material a chance to distribute itself across the surface


So now that it's the size we like, we again just *snip, snap* with the wirecutters straight through. Some bending back and forth and these actually look like nice little rings. It's important to line the ends up well, those we'll join now.

It's almost getting exciting, I see you eyeing the torch but not yet. First grab the flux and put some on the joint, the place where the pieces meet. I'm gonna use some flux with silver shavings in there so I don't have to add any solder at this stage but feel free to do so now.

Because it's time for.. THE TORCH!  Carefully light your torch and heat up the flux. It'll bubble up a bit as the water escapes and then go liquid like this:


Just a bit longer and it'll happen. First the flux will seemingly disappear while the silver melts, you gotta go a little longer tho. Gotta wait for it to flow. All of a sudden the solder will turn to water and coat your piece, flowing towards heat and bonding where you applied the flux. Neat. That's done.

 

Now we'll need the top hanger-y part so let's star this whole thing over in tiny:


Cut 'em like before and bend them into shape. Round. The shape we want is round.


We've got the two pieces ready, so let's put them into place using something that ideally doesn't sizzle, like fingers. Tweezers are my weapon of choice here. 

Put a dab of that magic flux on it and TORCH!  Carefully heat the two pieces at equal rates until the solder flows. At this stage I'm gonna lay it flat on the stone, add another dab of flux and a solid piece of solder to beef up this quite important joint. I forgot to take a picture but rest assured, I used my TORCH! very carefully 😛 

So now we've got the base of our pendant. Let's call it the Ring going forward. Yours' turned out quite well too. Here's mine next to yesterdays version.

Speaking of yesterday, you remember when I said I'd build myself a box.. I did build myself a box

and got myself some proper polishing wheels. I can only recommend these, they work a treat. These ones are 80, 120, 240, 320 grit and Polish

Which brings us to today's results, a perfect polish. Seams and toolmarks are gone, everything's smooth and shiny. I love it!

 

 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Rohice

[Vosenedich]

44 minutes ago, Rohice said:

Thx guys 🙂 Heh, dashed away lol

If DE is cool with it I can sell a few. First tho I'll have to produce some of a decent quality. The first batch was a proof of concept and me getting to know the materials. I needed to see if resin was a viable alternative to enamel. It's way lighter and behaves differently with bigger pigments but overall it's good. So I started to make a few proper ones.. 

But first a post mortem of the first round:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

* The outer diameter is a tad too large for the wire thickness used, decrease 2mm

* The sign itself should be made from 0.5mm wire
  * The round bends make it look like playmobile pyramids
  * Too samey with the outside
  * Don't need to sand down as far to get to the core in relation to outsides
    * No need to blend in the edges later

* Solder joint are sloppy, will use the paste I made to tack them, then reflow with an additional solid piece to fill any gaps

* Poured surface was uneven, don't use painter's tape as a ground

* Metal itself was poorly polished, gotta use multiple steps to get out toolmarks and scratches, not just polish over it

 

Now that I know what went wrong I started a second round and though I'd take you on a step by step journey of me making the pendants:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

We'll start with a simple piece of wire, 1mm thick:


It does come quite springy so we gotta anneal it. That means heating it and letting it cool slowly to make it bendable.

Now we can start to bend it around something round. I'm using a ring-mandrel here. Start the rolling real tight, it's gonna be a bit lumpy and by stretching it we're gonna work those out into a nice smooth round.. ring-thing.

But first we gotta trim the ends a bit. You can't get the very ends all the way round so just *snip, snap* them off and you're not gonna poke your fingers when you stretch it.

When we're stretching you want to make sure to add some rotation aswell to give the material a chance to distribute itself across the surface


So now that it's the size we like, we again just *snip, snap* with the wirecutters straight through. Some bending back and forth and these actually look like nice little rings. It's important to line the ends up well, those we'll join now.

It's almost getting exciting, I see you eyeing the torch but not yet. First grab the flux and put some on the joint, the place where the pieces meet. I'm gonna use some flux with silver shavings in there so I don't have to add any solder at this stage but feel free to do so now.

Because it's time for.. THE TORCH!  Carefully light your torch and heat up the flux. It'll bubble up a bit as the water escapes and then go liquid like this:


Just a bit longer and it'll happen. First the flux will seemingly disappear while the silver melts, you gotta go a little longer tho. Gotta wait for it to flow. All of a sudden the solder will turn to water and coat your piece, flowing towards heat and bonding where you applied the flux. Neat. That's done.

 

Now we'll need the top hanger-y part so let's star this whole thing over in tiny:


Cut 'em like before and bend them into shape. Round. The shape we want is round.


We've got the two pieces ready, so let's put them into place using something that ideally doesn't sizzle, like fingers. Tweezers are my weapon of choice here. 

Put a dab of that magic flux on it and TORCH!  Carefully heat the two pieces at equal rates until the solder flows. At this stage I'm gonna lay it flat on the stone, add another dab of flux and a solid piece of solder to beef up this quite important joint. I forgot to take a picture but rest assured, I used my TORCH! very carefully 😛 

So now we've got the base of our pendant. Let's call it the Ring going forward. Yours' turned out quite well too. Here's mine next to yesterdays version.

Speaking of yesterday, you remember when I said I'd build myself a box.. I did build myself a box

and got myself some proper polishing wheels. I can only recommend these, they work a treat. These ones are 80, 120, 240, 320 grit and Polish

Which brings us to today's results, a perfect polish. Seams and toolmarks are gone, everything's smooth and shiny. I love it!

 

 

Amazing work. The new ones are looking far more refined!

I'm afraid I liked the slightly elongated shape for the hanger piece of the original though, as it more closely resembles the in-game sprite for them. The hanger piece falls in the place of the tier-indicator for the basic lens, though the ones in-game are more triangular than anything else.

I'll stay at the edge of my seat until the next update.

[Rohice]

20 hours ago, Vosenedich said:

Amazing work. The new ones are looking far more refined!

I'm afraid I liked the slightly elongated shape for the hanger piece of the original though, as it more closely resembles the in-game sprite for them. The hanger piece falls in the place of the tier-indicator for the basic lens, though the ones in-game are more triangular than anything else.

I'll stay at the edge of my seat until the next update.

That's actually an awesome idea, I'm gonna include the little tier thingies and move the hanger up and out of the way a bit. I have multiple Ideas of how to solve it: Solder 2 wires together in parallel and file them into the rough shape, then bend 2 times to get the 3d shape and just set them into place when I pour the "top" clear bubble thing so they adhere to it. When I got the new polishing stuff yesterday I also picked up a set of tiny files, my smallest yet. Small enough to shape tiny thing like that..
 

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Mind you they wouldn't look like the ones ingame.. I've also thought about using some sort of azurite pieces, but those would be a little more tricky.. depending on the route I take with them  

 

Hmmm 🤔 

Edit: It's half a day later and I've had time to think on what and how.. Since the resin I'm using is quite thin, has a low viscosity, I can't pour it into a nice hemispherical shape just by tension so I gotta mold it. Which inverts the polarity (a common sciFi trope but in this case it does invert the order of operations lol) which in turn means that the signs have much more space on the z axis (rightHanded coordinates for life) which in turn means they can be more than flat. 
Now, keeping in the theme here: Molds. I think I can carve the signs from brass and make a silicon mold for each sign so I can then cast them using resin which I can then put in place as I cast the "lens" part and before I cast the background.
Oh yeah, I've also had a few ideas on the metal bits. First of all will be a metal backing plate for the whole thing, then I'll have something to attach the hemisphere to since I'm not casting into the metal ring anymore.

So in conclusion:
 * Carve the symbols in brass, with depth
 * Make molds
 * Cast them
 * Add a metal backplate
 * Make the hanger-bit more stealthy
 * Figure out if i can cast the tiny tier thingies aswell
   * If not, make them a functional part and use them as setting prongs (which I think they originally were)

So I'll be figuring out how to make molds and stuff while I keep you updated on something else 😛 .. the router front for my dremel is gonna arrive tomorrow so it'll likely be that.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

I've got something new: This is the first out of 3 options I'm gonna explore, the other two will be trying to cast the sign instead of using soldered metal and the 3rd will be the tier symbols, either cast or soldered. Tomorrow I'll do some proof of concept testing with the whole mold making process and see if I can do it with the budget I have.. right now I'm actually thinking about making some to sell so I can buy more materials lol



I'm quite liking the new direction, has more heft to it

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[Vosenedich]

1 hour ago, Rohice said:

I've got something new: This is the first out of 3 options I'm gonna explore, the other two will be trying to cast the sign instead of using soldered metal and the 3rd will be the tier symbols, either cast or soldered. Tomorrow I'll do some proof of concept testing with the whole mold making process and see if I can do it with the budget I have.. right now I'm actually thinking about making some to sell so I can buy more materials lol



I'm quite liking the new direction, has more heft to it

  Hide contents

 

You keep upping the challenge! Looking better and better.

I think the thickness on the last 3d model is a bit off though, looks more like a snowglobe than a lens. The thickness of the ring itself and the design are amazing, but the transparent acrylic would probably make more sense as a rather shallow (but still curved) surface. But that's just my opinion.

Keep up the amazing work, your handcrafted decorations are a treat to watch.

[Rohice]

On 2018-12-15 at 12:54 AM, Vosenedich said:

You keep upping the challenge! Looking better and better.

I think the thickness on the last 3d model is a bit off though, looks more like a snowglobe than a lens. The thickness of the ring itself and the design are amazing, but the transparent acrylic would probably make more sense as a rather shallow (but still curved) surface. But that's just my opinion.

Keep up the amazing work, your handcrafted decorations are a treat to watch.

Thank you 🙂 It does have a lovely lensing effect but yeah, might be a little much. I got a silicon mold (bought one) today that goes with the new depth (basically just scaled to 30% on the Z axis)
 

Spoiler

So I immediately poured some resin into all of them and now I gotta wait a "bit". I did all of them in case the 20mm size I'm currently aiming for isn't a good size. Prototyping a thing digitally is one thing but the size has to feel right irl and that transition is not often 1:1.
Once they are cured I'll see which one is the right size and then cast a few more of them.. and then try out the whole silicone molding process by making a mold with n of the final size. 
(I've also had an idea for a cool Witcher Quen pendant along similar lines of this design so having more molds to cast in parallel will speed things up with 7 day curing times.. the tradeOff is a super clear, uv stable resin without bubbles)

But since I gotta do something in the meantime I'll show you my wood:
 

Spoiler

 

I'll start with printing the pattern and gluing it to the wood

Then grab myself a round-tipped knife and start rolling around the edges

That's the same way you'd start an oldSchool metal-wire type inlay, at this point you could take the flat wire, hammer it in, sand it flat and call it a day if you wanted. 

I'm just doing it so I don't rip out pieces of grain across the borders when I use the router later. 

 

I've also got something for you tenno: The Lotus pattern. You can print it out onto some cardStock, hang it into your windowframes with some string and watch them dance in the wind like snowflakes when a breeze comes through 🙂 Or a mobile.. be creative.

 

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This is the A4 pdf, 300dpi
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IuIOQWXRw3zPOn_3FIBEZ3RZO8AN0p4M/view?usp=sharing

And the regular image, same scale

 

enjoy

Edit: Okay, I've got exactly 20 bucks in my crafting budget left.. so I decided to actually make something sellable with that. I'm going to make lotus pendants in the current design.

I'm going to have this particular lotus pattern and the tier pips 3d printed in steel, will make a mold of that using silicone and then cast the items symbols in resin, then embedd those when pouring the lenses, put everything together.. and hopefully someone wants one. 

If you're interested let me know

Edited December 25, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

This is the one i just sent off to be 3d printed 

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at 4 in the morning on a saturday 😛 

 

I'm gonna make some production quality pendants \o/  



 

Edited December 17, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

Had to revise the model a bit so this is the one that's gonna be printed:
 

Spoiler

and the result should look something like this:

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

Since I have to wait for the tiny little lotus to be printed, it's time to continue on the bigger lotus. I had originally planned to do this with a little dremel router.. even got one but then I went to a craftstore and picked up some carving knives for 2 bucks and tried it the oldschool way. It's been a lifetime since I've done that and it's a little rough around the edges but I got back into it right quick.

Spoiler

Edited December 18, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

Update time 😄

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First I sanded it flat:

Then re-applied some iron-solution

 

 

And here is what it looks like after a little finishing:


I did expect it to be lighter but the pigment gives the resin a very mineral-like quality.. which includes a certain level of translucency, so next time I'm going to add a basecoat of white acrylic paint into it. I've wrecked the carving knives I bought for this.. I used oak-wood, which is rather hard. For the next few things I'm gonna use pine. Already have the wood and printed the patterns 😉 
 

Spoiler

I also killed my "dremel"<> trying to use it as a router.. now I can't tighten the chuck anymore. Bummer. I might be able to braze the flexshaft to it permanently.. so I could still use it for some stuff. But now I actually do have to make some money from my &#036;&amp;*^ing around in the workshop.. things are getting expensive.

But for now I still got some stuff so I'll probably make the stalker one next. I'm thinking gold inlay, just as a sort of "#*!% you" for everytime he's managed to kill me 😛 (orokin aesthetic and all that). 

[Autongnosis]

That looks really really nice, good job! 

[Rohice]

3 hours ago, Autongnosis said:

That looks really really nice, good job! 

Thank you, too kind.. but I wasn't quite pleased with it yet.

So I re-finished the wood and now I'm much happier with the result. The backdrop you see there is the piece I'm gonna use for the Stalker sign btw 😉 I'm quite excited for that one now.

[Autongnosis]

It does look better ye. 

[Rohice]

Right, so Pine is absolutely unusable for this kind of work.. at least at my current skill-level. It's too soft, spongy. 
 

Spoiler

but I do have some Oak left, so I'll use that to make the stalker sign. I've learned quite a bit about hand carving and have to say with a little technique it's so much easier.
 

Spoiler

 

 

and as you can see on the left there, this time around I'll put down a few basecoats of white so the resin will pop better.

I also spent some time to create a better color wood-stain that works in a more uniform way, here's my current favorite. It's kindof the color of the Dachshund we had when I grew up 😛 

The tabs I cut out of this were for pigment tests, different color baseCoats and pigmented resin poured on top to find the best combinations. That's also how I ended on white as a basecoat for gold. Originally I had planned to do a first coat in white, then one in a gold-effect paint and then pour.but turns out a plain white works best for bounce light. More on this later.

 

I've also got news on the focus lenses/lotus lenses. Here's one of the settings:

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I put some sawdust between the setting and the lens to raise it to roughly the same height it'll be at with the lotus sign (and it's base) in place. 

 

The settings are now made from A2 steel, some people are allergic to Nickel. So while I'm waiting for the lotus master to finish printing, I'm just making more settings and pouring more lenses, so I can make one giant mold with 20 spaces and pour them all at once 😉 .. in theory

Edited December 25, 2018 by Rohice

[Rohice]

I did a pigment test for the backgrounds; these pendants are about 1mm of pigmented resin poured into the setting, random jumpring on top and a clear resin lens above that.. I did have a third one but I must have bumped it, so the surface tension didn't hold the lens, it poured out and glued itself to the underground o_0 

In place of the jumprings there will be a 3d lotus sign inside them, once I figure out how to make those. Overall I'm quite pleased with the visual result, tho next time I'll wait for the resin to set up a bit which will let me make fancy swirls in the background and also pour the lens a tad thicker than on this attempt.

[Vosenedich]

4 hours ago, Rohice said:

I did a pigment test for the backgrounds; these pendants are about 1mm of pigmented resin poured into the setting, random jumpring on top and a clear resin lens above that.. I did have a third one but I must have bumped it, so the surface tension didn't hold the lens, it poured out and glued itself to the underground o_0 

In place of the jumprings there will be a 3d lotus sign inside them, once I figure out how to make those. Overall I'm quite pleased with the visual result, tho next time I'll wait for the resin to set up a bit which will let me make fancy swirls in the background and also pour the lens a tad thicker than on this attempt.

They are both sooo pretty! Even without a proper sign inside it. I'd want the darker one, but I know a friend of mine who would be all over the lighter version.

Can't wait to see the finished project!

[Rohice]

On 2018-12-27 at 6:03 PM, Vosenedich said:

They are both sooo pretty! Even without a proper sign inside it. I'd want the darker one, but I know a friend of mine who would be all over the lighter version.

Can't wait to see the finished project!

Thank you, your enthusiasm is one of the reasons I keep making things here, so here's a new thing. A stalker sign.

I've learned quite a bit from the first one and am happy about the contrast of the inlay to the wood. The basecoats helped for sure. Hmm, with the woodgrain like that it kindof reminds me of a jellyfish in water. While it is interesting I do feel that it detracts/distracts from the thing itself, makes it too busy. 
While working on this one I developed an actual technique.. to practice that i've started another sign.

Spoiler

The stages of development.. I put on about 7 layers of white and another 5 of gold acryllic paint this time so the wood doesn't come through anymore. Worked a treat tho next time I'll only use the targetColor without a previous base.

To practice what I've learned I started another inlay:

I think after this one I'll have the basics of doing inlays by hand down and will continue with the lenses/pendants. 

Speaking of which.. I've decided to be rather impatient and try to file some signs out of Aluminium. The first thing I ever did in metal was made from Alu aswell, this one:

Can't do more than go wrong.. so let's try 😄 

Do you have any favorites, which focus lenses you'd want?

Edited December 29, 2018 by Rohice