Archive for February, 2012

Sneak peek | Wallet prototype; update: now available!

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

As evidenced by the recent Sneak Peek posts, it wouldn’t take a detective to figure out that we’ve been busy behind the scenes trying out new things with our laser-cutter that don’t involve jewelry.

Like many guys, Eric doesn’t actually wear jewelry all that often (even though he is half the driving force behind Blend Creations). With necessity being the mother of invention (yes, that link goes to one of Eric’s old “wallets” that he made out of paper. George Costanza is his hero), we’ve recently prototyped this lovely wallet, complete with a bit of bling:

As evidenced by the photos, Eric carries a lot of cra.. er.. stuff in his wallet: 15 cards, some big bills and various other slips of paper. This wallet carries it all with room to grow, especially since leather will stretch with use.

It’s a hand saddle-stitched leather wallet, using waxed cotton thread. The leather is of 4 oz. weight (about 1/16″ thick) and comes from cattle that has lived a full life. (The full hide has evidence of a brand, scars, bug bites and other interesting marks). We’re still playing around with various options, but we expect to be able to offer these soon at a price tag of around $100.

Let us know what you think!

Update: The wallets are now available in our store!

Sneak peek | One more time with feeling… er felt

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

We’ve been playing around with wool felt and our laser cutter. It seems only natural that we put it to some good use, so we made this pretty coaster with our Flower Lace pattern.

What do you think?

Sneak peek | Fun with felt: Custom ornament prototype

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Around the holidays, we made some special Christmas gifts — they were ornaments based on our child’s drawings (our 5 year old Jr. VP!).

We had a few requests to have custom ornaments available in the future and while it’s no longer the season, these things take time and we’ve put our thinking caps on! Behold, a first prototype in 100% wool felt, in a beautifully vibrant shade of red:

As fun as they were in acrylic, the ornaments are spindly which could lead to the little limbs snapping off, and frankly, it smells horrible to laser cut plastic. (Not to worry, our laser has a carbon filter, but it certainly does not smell like roses or anything good for you).

Wool felt on the other hand is quite pliable and doesn’t smell any worse than a hair dryer. We’ve washed the final product and there’s actually no residual odor.

So we’ve got our thinking caps on and will be experimenting with designs for some trivets and other household goods aside from the ornaments. What do you think?

 

Make it Yourself | Free printable: QR code valentines

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Obviously, we know our way around QR codes. After all, not only do we make QR code jewelry, we’ve even made a QR code jack o’ lantern!

So even a holiday like Valentine’s Day should have a good dose of geek chic.

We put our laser-cutter to work and made this:
"Be Mine"

If you’re curious about what it encodes, get your smart phone out and scan this:

Since we know it’s not likely that you’ll have your own laser-cutter, we’ve made a printable version. (Though, if you’re really ambitious, you could still cut out the QR code!)

Happy Valentine’s Day geeks <3

Jewelry giveaway | For February: win a #hashtag pendant

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

 

For February 2012, we’re giving away one of our newest, geekiest jewelry pieces: a #hashtag circle pendant. It joins our roster of other Twitter-related jewelry (like our very popular “@” symbol Twitter necklace). It’s a great way to express your geeky side with a #tagyoulove :)

To enter our giveaway, we’re trying something new — we’re using the widget below to collect entries in this month’s giveaway. You’ll get an entry for commenting on the blog, but you’ll also be able to get bonus entries by Tweeting about the giveaway, Liking us on Facebook, and subscribing to our newsletter (no worries if you’re already a subscriber, you’ll still get a bonus entry if you leave us your subscribing email address).

We will draw randomly from all the entries received by Thursday March 1st at 12:01am, and announce a winner later that day. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize otherwise, we will draw again.


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