jewelry

Ah, the sweet smell of ingenuity. When Amsterdam designer Jody Kocken discovered she was allergic to wearing perfume, she didn't just resign herself to a world without White Diamonds and Someday by Justin Bieber. Kocken rolled up her sleeves and created Perfume Tools.

Perfume Tools are metal bracelets, earrings, and necklaces designed to sit over the opening of a perfume bottle. The jewelry soaks up the smell of the perfume, without ever requiring you to slather it behind your ears. Nestle a bracelet or necklace next to your skin and the heat of your body releases the aroma.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- It's It: The story of the Bay Area's most famous dessert, or, the other San Francisco treat.

- This is why we behave so strangely in elevators.

- Snopes debunks "Elevator Express" trick.

Bathroom break video: Empty America series profiles San Francisco.

With the recent hike in the price of film, plus digital photography so easily accessible, film cameras just aren't very common these days. But if you can't shoot with film, why not create wearable art pieces dedicated to the film cameras we love?

Jeweler Luke Satou has done just that with new handmade jewelry that's made in the likeness of an Olympus Trip 35 film camera. What separates this from the conventional trinkets is that it has parts that actually work. You'll be able open its film back, advance the film winder, and turn the rewind knob, too. … Read more

Looking for a gift for that science-minded someone (or your science-minded self)?

MIT alums Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz (aka design studio Nervous System) recently announced a new line of jewelry -- "Ammonite" -- inspired by patterns found on the fossilized shells of ammonites, ancient relatives of the octopus.

Rosenkrantz, who studied biology and architecture, and Louis-Rosenberg, who studied mathematics, say they used "a simulation of dendritic solidification to make suture-like patterns" for the pieces. Wikipedia helpfully adds that "when materials crystallize or solidify under certain conditions, they freeze unstably, resulting in dendritic forms."

And Crave even more helpfully chimes in that the supertechnical translation of "dendritic forms" is "very-cool-looking fractally patterns which -- when worn on your wrists, earlobes, or around your neck -- will make you the envy of everyone at the Science Nerds Ball."… Read more

It feels almost quaint in this era of the smartphone (aka the new pocket watch) to see a company producing a wristwatch that's nothing more (or less) than a wristwatch.

Companies including Sony are producing smart watches, adding texts, tweets, e-mails, and the like to the information you can wear on your wrist. And with products like the Pebble appearing, it may be only a matter of time before the smart watch truly takes hold.

But there is something classic and clean about the simple wristwatch. It tells the time and that's it. That's a lot, however. The wristwatch provides us with a little ritual -- however quick and commonplace -- in which we pay our respects to the passing of time, with no other distractions.… Read more

With researchers in Italy claiming to have found evidence of a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, why not celebrate by admiring these poetic and amusing da Vinci-esque creations?

Metal smith and jewelry maker Dukno Yoon conjures up the more scientific work of the master with his Wings series of works.

Yoon is clearly a machinery-minded gadgeteer. "Mechanical structure becomes the most enjoyable form to me, as it becomes complex yet remains simple and coherent," he says on his site.

Still, he considers these pieces "a series of poems" in which he shares "metaphor, imagination, … Read more

The holidays are fast approaching, and if you're searching for something shiny to give to your tech-loving lady, the USB locket necklace just might be the answer.

Industrial designer Emily Rothschild has given the classic keepsake a high-tech makeover by incorporating a flash drive. Now, instead of being limited to one or two photographs, you can fill up an entire 2GB flash drive with memories that your loved one can carry around her neck. … Read more

With wedding vows a little less lasting than the extended warranty on an HDTV these days, it's probably not a good idea to tattoo your commitment to each other onto skin. A better way to symbolize your love, as artist and groom-to-be Luke Jerram did, is to design a wedding band that comes with a built-in mini "projector" to display portraits of the couple. Though whether this makes the ring awkward to wear is beside the point.

Jerram, working finger-in-hand with British jeweler Tamrakar, developed a bespoke projector ring with a tiny lens and a miniature slide … Read more

My sixth sense tells me I'm not going to make many friends with this article, but I'm just going to say it: if you carry a bag over or across one shoulder, it's a purse. That means all those messenger bags you fellows are carrying around are man purses. I don't care how big it is: it's still a murse. And I've already earned the ire of one coworker by calling it that (I believe his exact words were: "I'll murse you"), so if you want to bombard my comment section … Read more