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How one Japanese woman created an earring clasp that can never be lost

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Way before the Maker movement, a Japanese woman named Eri Kikunaga created a product that answered a very problem for many women. The product is called Hazurenikui Pierce Catch, roughly translated as ‘hard-to-come-off earring clasp.’ This was back in 2007 when she was only 26 years old. Eri is now the founder of Chrysmela, whose earring clasp has been used by over 100,000 women. The idea for the product came out of Eri’s own personal experience when she lost her earring by accident, and her boyfriend got angry at her as a result. That’s when she drew up the very first design of what the earring clasp would look like. No women is immune to losing earrings, and every time is as sad and dissapointing as the first time. In fact, according to the company’s own survey, 89% of women they questioned have lost earrings in the past. The ear-pierce holders are allergy-proof, using surgical stainless steel, the same sort of material used in tooth fillings. The product requires precision crafting, and other materials such as silver or gold do not work. Within the 5mm diameter device, there are nine different parts. They are each manufactured at dedicated factories and…

chrysmela-holder

Way before the Maker movement, a Japanese woman named Eri Kikunaga created a product that answered a very problem for many women. The product is called Hazurenikui Pierce Catch, roughly translated as ‘hard-to-come-off earring clasp.’ This was back in 2007 when she was only 26 years old. Eri is now the founder of Chrysmela, whose earring clasp has been used by over 100,000 women.

The idea for the product came out of Eri’s own personal experience when she lost her earring by accident, and her boyfriend got angry at her as a result. That’s when she drew up the very first design of what the earring clasp would look like. No women is immune to losing earrings, and every time is as sad and dissapointing as the first time. In fact, according to the company’s own survey, 89% of women they questioned have lost earrings in the past.

chrysmela-makingofThe ear-pierce holders are allergy-proof, using surgical stainless steel, the same sort of material used in tooth fillings. The product requires precision crafting, and other materials such as silver or gold do not work. Within the 5mm diameter device, there are nine different parts. They are each manufactured at dedicated factories and put together by hand in the final process.

The very first version of the product was released back in July of 2008 and after five years, there are over 700 stores and 100 online shops that sell it. Eri explained about how her invention gained among the public:

The [positive] sales results on the online shops helped convince offline stores to coopeprate. There was an online jewerly shop on Rakuten and they believed in our product and began selling it. The conversion rate was as high as 10%. Our product began to appear in the general rankings and jewerly rankings on Rakuten and this helped us gain exposure to other potential partners. 94% of users who have bought our ear-pierce holder were satisfied with the product, and that helped to bring our product offline.

Chrysmela’s ear-pierce holder was able to hold up to 8 kg in a performance test. The pin portion of an earring can vary from 0.7 to 0.9 mm, but the holder supports 0.6 to 1.1 mm. So one pair would support most earrings that you might have. The product is great, but the price is a little steep at 4,980 yen (about $49), in some cases just as much as the earring it’s holding. The pricing was the biggest problem when the company was trying to find sales partners. Eri explains:

In the jewerly industry, the executives are mostly men. They don’t have a clue about how often ear-pierces fall off. I was really surprised when they said, “If women do not lose their earrings they will not buy another.” Even if women lost their earrings it doesn’t guarantee that they will buy the same one, and because they fall off women do not spend much money on ear-pierce. They would rather buy something cheap because there is always risks of losing them, and this had to be changed.

And she did indeed bring about a change. Chrysmela’s product changed the conception of an earring from an expendable that you’re likely to lose, to a precious item that you will wear for a long time, without the anxiety that you might lose it. The clasp is still being enhanced, with the latest iteration being 0.5mm or 10% smaller than the previous version.

In Japan, we have another word similar to ‘Makers’ called Mono-Zukuri. Mono-zukuri is the output of many impressive technologies in this country, and to see the Eri create an everyday product of such value is really amazing. Chrysmela’s earring clasp is available for purchase on Chrysme.la for overseas readers.

Japanese-made lamp is a Stroke of design genius

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In his book Makers, Chris Anderson says that we are all makers in one way or another. With the right tools and technologies, we can create not just software but physical products too. Keita Yagi is one such maker who does exactly that, manufacturing a beautifully designed minimalist desk lamp called Stroke. Since its initial release in December of 2011, Stroke became wildly popular and has received several design awards including Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award 2011 as well as the reddot design award 2012 in France. “Best light, minimal structure” is the concept behind Stroke and it does not dissapoint. The Stroke’s body consists of a single thin pipe only 15mm in diameter, and the light covers a wide area so that users don’t need to adjust the height or angle of the light themselves. The pipe is curved so that the body of the lamp doesn’t get in the way of computer monitors which might also be on your desk. The light that comes from Stroke feels almost like natural light. A microcomputer within the lamp triggers the light to gradually get brighter instead of all at once. Stroke is also pretty affordable in terms of the electricity…

stroke-desklamp

In his book Makers, Chris Anderson says that we are all makers in one way or another. With the right tools and technologies, we can create not just software but physical products too. Keita Yagi is one such maker who does exactly that, manufacturing a beautifully designed minimalist desk lamp called Stroke.

Since its initial release in December of 2011, Stroke became wildly popular and has received several design awards including Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award 2011 as well as the reddot design award 2012 in France.

“Best light, minimal structure” is the concept behind Stroke and it does not dissapoint. The Stroke’s body consists of a single thin pipe only 15mm in diameter, and the light covers a wide area so that users don’t need to adjust the height or angle of the light themselves. The pipe is curved so that the body of the lamp doesn’t get in the way of computer monitors which might also be on your desk.

stroke-newspaper

The light that comes from Stroke feels almost like natural light. A microcomputer within the lamp triggers the light to gradually get brighter instead of all at once. Stroke is also pretty affordable in terms of the electricity consumption, costing only 40 yen per month for an average of six hours of daily use, and its LED light can last as long as 27 years.

Keita Yagi studied electronic engineering in grad school where he received several awards including the James Dyson Award in 2006. Upon graduating, he went on to work at Fuji Film and at age 29 founded his own one man company, Bsize, in order to build Stroke. Besides the actual shaping and color coating, Yagi does everything from design to testing and even packaging!

Stroke can be purchased for 39,900 yen (about $416) and is available over on the Bsize website. Check out the video below to see how the Stroke lamp is lovingly produced.