World Braille Day is upon us and there’s no better day to stop and take a moment to appreciate our sight. Today and every day, Nice Braille jewelry gives back with every purchase in order to spread light. “Light” is exactly what all Nice jewelry designs say, in a secret Braille message.
Visit our Instagram feed and check out today’s post (January 4, World Braille Day) for more designs and information from the experts at Braille House. Our shop page also features Braille designs with a few unique ways to purchase and know you’re giving back with every item you choose.
If you’re visiting this blog because you’re curious how working with the low vision community led me to become a tiny mermaid (the final photo in today’s Instagram post, featured here.) Read on!
The following story was written for inclusion in a book on manifesting magic, written by Zehra Mahoon. You can find Zehra online and discover her books, workbooks, group pages and learn more about her work with the Law of Attraction.
MANIFESTING MAGIC: HOW BRAILLE JEWELRY LIGHTED THE PATH TO MY CHILDHOOD IDOL
(Also known as, HOW I BECAME A TINY MERMAID)
What did you want to be when you grew up? As a little kid on a small midwestern farm, I’d stare at the beautiful mermaid on the tuna can as it sat on the kitchen counter above my eye-level. Mom would let me hold the can before she opened it and I’d dream of the mermaid life. I’d wear a sparkly blue sweetheart cut dress and live with my underwater friends in an adventurous life under the sea. My magic star wand would grant all the wishes and my long flowing blond hair would have a bun up top.
As it turns out, as an adult, I have the hair and the bun, plus plenty of sparkly blue mermaid outfits for fire dancing at the Tucson Mermaid Parade. I even have a jewelry company with a star as my signature, bringing magic to clients and granting wishes to the nonprofits receiving donations from my jewelry. As far as childhood dreams go, I’d say close enough! But there was even more in store.
Always happy along the way and thoroughly enjoying my journey as a jewelry designer, I created the first Braille jewelry line. I collaborated with an organization serving people with low vision and there I met Syd Berger, an artist who painted expansive, colorful canvasses. I added Braille beads to her canvasses so her fellow individuals with low vision could “feel” evocative phrases in Braille depicting the feelings, colors and emotions of her art.
Syd, who was probably 30 years my senior, once asked, “Honey, what did you want to be when you grew up?” It was a question I had NEVER answered honestly. But for some reason, this time I followed an impulse to tell the truth and I’m so glad I did.
I ignored the resistant thoughts that a smarter sounding answer would be better. I bluntly and honestly proclaimed “I wanted to be the mermaid on the tuna can.” Syd’s face dropped in shock and surprise. She didn’t say a word, but stood, turned, walked to a cabinet and pulled out a dusty old scrapbook. She sat down next to me, opened the book and turned to a full page spread with photos and news clippings of her experience POSING AS THE MODEL FOR THE MERMAID ON THE CAN.
Was that my manifestation, hers, or a co-creation of BOTH? Definitely both! It didn’t take long to further bring my dream of being a mermaid to reality, as I met and befriended Rudy Flores in Tucson AZ. Someone let me know Rudy was looking for interesting people in Tucson to create an “Army” of action figures. As a fire dancer, I was an easy fit and I loved having the opportunity to pose, be sculpted and attend the group exhibitions of his work. And of course loved having a tiny “mini me” fire dancer on my shelf.
It wasn’t long till popular demand brought Rudy back to the 3-D printer sculpting Round 2 of the Army Figure project. I jumped in again and this time, dressed as the mermaid of my dreams, holding a real star wand and an actual can of tuna with Syd’s likeness on it. I treasure this little mermaid, she is a tiny but real symbol that life is incredible, doing good for others always pays off in spades, synchronicities abound and the Law of Attraction is always at play.
Braille Jewelry and Tiny Mermaids
Visit our Instagram feed and check out today’s post (January 4, World Braille Day) for more designs and information from the experts at Braille House. Our shop page also features Braille designs with a few unique ways to purchase and know you’re giving back with every item you choose.
If you’re visiting this blog because you’re curious how working with the low vision community led me to become a tiny mermaid (the final photo in today’s Instagram post, featured here.) Read on!
The following story was written for inclusion in a book on manifesting magic, written by Zehra Mahoon. You can find Zehra online and discover her books, workbooks, group pages and learn more about her work with the Law of Attraction.
MANIFESTING MAGIC: HOW BRAILLE JEWELRY LIGHTED THE PATH TO MY CHILDHOOD IDOL
(Also known as, HOW I BECAME A TINY MERMAID)
What did you want to be when you grew up? As a little kid on a small midwestern farm, I’d stare at the beautiful mermaid on the tuna can as it sat on the kitchen counter above my eye-level. Mom would let me hold the can before she opened it and I’d dream of the mermaid life. I’d wear a sparkly blue sweetheart cut dress and live with my underwater friends in an adventurous life under the sea. My magic star wand would grant all the wishes and my long flowing blond hair would have a bun up top.
As it turns out, as an adult, I have the hair and the bun, plus plenty of sparkly blue mermaid outfits for fire dancing at the Tucson Mermaid Parade. I even have a jewelry company with a star as my signature, bringing magic to clients and granting wishes to the nonprofits receiving donations from my jewelry. As far as childhood dreams go, I’d say close enough! But there was even more in store.
Always happy along the way and thoroughly enjoying my journey as a jewelry designer, I created the first Braille jewelry line. I collaborated with an organization serving people with low vision and there I met Syd Berger, an artist who painted expansive, colorful canvasses. I added Braille beads to her canvasses so her fellow individuals with low vision could “feel” evocative phrases in Braille depicting the feelings, colors and emotions of her art.
Syd, who was probably 30 years my senior, once asked, “Honey, what did you want to be when you grew up?” It was a question I had NEVER answered honestly. But for some reason, this time I followed an impulse to tell the truth and I’m so glad I did.
I ignored the resistant thoughts that a smarter sounding answer would be better. I bluntly and honestly proclaimed “I wanted to be the mermaid on the tuna can.” Syd’s face dropped in shock and surprise. She didn’t say a word, but stood, turned, walked to a cabinet and pulled out a dusty old scrapbook. She sat down next to me, opened the book and turned to a full page spread with photos and news clippings of her experience POSING AS THE MODEL FOR THE MERMAID ON THE CAN.
Was that my manifestation, hers, or a co-creation of BOTH? Definitely both! It didn’t take long to further bring my dream of being a mermaid to reality, as I met and befriended Rudy Flores in Tucson AZ. Someone let me know Rudy was looking for interesting people in Tucson to create an “Army” of action figures. As a fire dancer, I was an easy fit and I loved having the opportunity to pose, be sculpted and attend the group exhibitions of his work. And of course loved having a tiny “mini me” fire dancer on my shelf.
It wasn’t long till popular demand brought Rudy back to the 3-D printer sculpting Round 2 of the Army Figure project. I jumped in again and this time, dressed as the mermaid of my dreams, holding a real star wand and an actual can of tuna with Syd’s likeness on it. I treasure this little mermaid, she is a tiny but real symbol that life is incredible, doing good for others always pays off in spades, synchronicities abound and the Law of Attraction is always at play.