The cutting edge Brooklyn based Fetty company makes pretty unusual jewelry - high end jewelry made with sterling silver, 14 K gold and decorated with diamonds but not in just any design. The diamonds spell out words such as "I Love You", "Yes", "Forever" and "Mine" in Standard American Braille. Their newest items are the diamond braille rings but they also make pendants and bangles as shown above.
The jewelry company was started by rock and roller, Justin Tranter (Semi Precious Weapons Band) who has experience making jewelry as well as working day jobs as a jewelry store buyer. His mother is also a successful custom engagement ring designer. Fetty's jewelry has grabbed a lot of media attention. The jewelry line is carried by Barneys.com.
There is also a less expensive but similar line of jewelry called Fame (see below) which is made from plated brass and Austrian crystals. Choice words in Braille include "Magnetic", "Precious" and "Love". Check out their blog for the upcoming locations where you can buy Fame jewelry.
Other needs specific and just down right cool jewelry include the revamped medic alert bracelet that Alice redesigned herself and the breastfeeding or nursing bracelet designed by Graham for his wife for when their first child was born, both at a past beading party and workshop.
Via Cool Hunting
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The Beading Gem's Journal
I am totally in love with the concept!!!! I've have always had a fascination with braille and with something as tactile as jewelry what a wonderful gift -- even for a sighted person. The designs are so graphic and strikingly beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteI love it too - how cool!
ReplyDeleteI read Grade-1 Braille. I was taught it by my partner so I can leave notes for her and never make the error of buying another piece of Fetty “Braille” jewelry.
ReplyDeleteTheir “luck” bracelet almost reads “luck” to a sighted person. The only way to actually make it read “luck” would be to add a space after the initial “l”.
What it actually says is “y [grade-2-symbol st] [grade-2-symbol sh]. So “ystsh”. Or, to put it another way, WTF?
This was my partner’s expression when I bought her the Fetty pendant supposedly saying “baby” (it actually says “bab reverse-k reverse-l”, incomprehensible in Grade 2 Braille).
The BFF pendant says “GDA” (that would be Guideline Daily Amount or Guide Dogs Association, I assume: the person who designed this clearly needs a guide dog).
From a Braille reader’s perspective, the only accurate pendant, on closer examination, is the one saying “precious”. This seems to be more by chance, in that every character in the word contains dots in both columns of the Braille cell. In retrospect, I should have bought this one.
The only way to make the pendant that is supposed to say “magnetic” read correctly would be to add a small space after the letter “a”.
The “try” pendant reads “tr [space] y”. The “try” *bracelet* pictured on their blog is correct.
“Love” is, not unusually, completely messed up. Their pendant says “&wo”. Thankfully, I didn’t get this one!
I’ve also sat with a Braille chart trying to decipher their bracelets. This is a complete no-go area. It’s little more than random dots. It’s not coherent.
Considering how much they charge for these things they could at least get their Braille accurate! They might also get a few more customers. Maybe even me again.
There is a market for quality Braille jewelry. Few people are trying to fill this market. It would be great if these were accurate.