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When it comes to choosing gifts for your colleagues, friends, and loved ones, there are almost always a few people on your list who are easier to buy for than others. It can be frustrating when you are racking your brain to come up with a gift for that person who has everything, or for a new friend, love interest, or boss. Giving a gift can be especially anxiety producing when you want to give something meaningful, and not just a token or throwaway gift.

What if there is someone on your gift list who has vision loss? You want to give a gift that will be useful, right? A tech gadget? Some sort of daily living aid? Before you go there, realize that people with disabilities are people first, and just like everyone else, people who are blind or visually impaired enjoy the fashionable, fun, and frivolous as well! Not every gift has to be practical, useful, or sensible. So, what makes an ideal gift for a person with vision loss?

Presenting the Elegant Insights Braille Creations 2018 holiday gift guide. When you want to give a gift that is beautiful, personal, sentimental, or romantic, we’ve got you covered. Here is a short list of suggestions, categorized by price and recipient. Happy shopping!

For Mom, Sis, Nana, or GF:

The “I Love You” necklace. Really, what else is there to say? This necklace says it all. A large heart pendant is braille-embossed with the words “I love you” in grade 2 braille. It’s available in three color ways, either copper with rose quartz beads and copper accents, brass with lavender jade beads and brass accents, or steel and aluminum with blue agate and hematite accents. The pendant hangs from the ring of the toggle clasp, which is worn in front, and is enhanced by a pretty little cluster of the beads and embellishments. the chain is a solid cable chain in the metal that matches the pendant.

The I Love You Necklace, $50.00. Shop the I Love You Necklace here.

The “Always and Forever” dangle earrings are a great match to the “I Love You” necklace, as they are heart shaped charms, and they are available in the exact same metal and bead colors. One earring says “always” in grade 2 braille, and the other earring says “forever” in grade 2 braille. The hearts and bead clusters dangle about an inch or so from a leverback earring finding.

The Always and Forever Heart Dangle Earrings, $25.00. Shop the Always and Forever Earrings here.

For Dad, Bro, or best bud:

The Spot-on Military-style Dog Tag is available in your choice of metals and sizes. We call these “military-style” because the tags are just like the ones worn by our men and women in uniform. They feature a rolled edge, and they are available in brass, copper, and shiny stainless steel. We offer the tags in your choice of ways to wear them. As a necklace, we drop them onto a 24 inch ball chain. If you want to use it as a key tag, we offer a carabiner clip and split ring so it can be attached to backpacks, belt loops, laptop bags, or just about anywhere. Most importantly, the dog tags can accommodate up to 2 lines of up to 7 braille characters, so if you want us to personalize one for you , don’t forget to include punctuation, spaces, and special characters such as the numbers sign or the capital letter dot. Want more space? We also offer a jumbo tag, available in steel only, which can accommodate up to 4 lines of up to 9 braille characters. the jumbo tag is a great luggage tag.

The Spot-on Military Style Dog Tag, standard size, $20.00. Get the Spot-on Dog Tag here.

The Spot-on Luggage Tag, jumbo size, $25.00. Go here for the Luggage Tag.

Our Decanter Enchanter ID Plaques are elegant identifiers for your libations. If you decant your wine or spirits, we have a set of brass, copper, or aluminum charms that will help you to identify or differentiate between the contents of your containers. Each set of 3 plaques is available braille-embossed with the names of popular wine varietals or spirit types, but you can also request a custom set. Add the Elegant Insights tactile touch to your home bar.

Decanter Enchanter Plaques, set of three, $60.00. Find the Decanter identifiers here.

For the Big Kahuna, Fellow Office Drones, Teacher, or the Hostess with the Mostest:

If you know someone who is an avid braille reader, perhaps your boss or book club members, our Mark Your Spot Bookmarks are a classy gift. Available in shiny brass or gleaming copper, we can custom emboss a name, date, or even a company name or special quote for a gift that’s perfectly personalized. A leather cord and bead accent drapes over the book binding to add a pretty touch to the bookmark, even when tucked inside their favorite braille book.

Mark Your Spot Custom Embossed Bookmark, brass or copper, $30.00. See the options here, then call to request your customization.

The set of 6 Sublime Vine Wine Glass charms add a touch of style to any stemware, and are a great gift to bring to a holiday party. Make everyone’s wine glass easy to identify with charms that are both visually as well as tactually distinct. Each set includes 6 different words in braille, and are available in several shapes and themes.

Sublime Vine Stemware Charms, set of 6, $65.00. Check out the choices available in our Sublime Vine Stemware Charms. Cheers!

For your Girl Gang:

When you want to give a little somethin’ somethin’, but don’t want to go overboard on the budget, you’ll be a hit when you give a personalized gift of a bracelet or necklace with your recipient’s initials in braille. Choose from 3 shapes in 3 metal colors, brass, copper, or steel/aluminum, and request up to 3 initials on a heart, star, or mini dog tag. Each necklace is 18 inches long with a toggle clasp, worn in front, and the bracelet is 7 and 1/4 inches long secured with a toggle clasp. They’re pretty, personal, and perfect for your best friend forever.

Initial Impressions Bracelet, $30.00.

Initial Impressions Necklace, $35.00. Shop for both Initial Impressions Necklace and Bracelet here!

Our Zippity-do-dot Zipper Pulls Set is just plain cute. Clip them on any standard zipper that has a hole, and add a fun flash of style to a jacket, wristlet bag, or backpack. Available in several styles and metal colors, we have some that are already braille-embossed, and some that are available for you to customize. Let us know which set you’d like to give, and enjoy the gratitude. You’ll get a set of two zipper pulls.

Zippity-do-dot Zipper Pulls Set, $20.00. Click or tap to check out the choices of zipper pulls sets.

The “wow” gift for Daughter, Sis, or BFF:

Our Butterfly Dreams necklace and Earrings Set is so pretty, uplifting, and flat-out happy-making. If she loves butterflies, this set will let her dreams take flight. A gleaming golden brass pendant butterfly is braille-embossed with “dream,” and features a cluster of white and blue faux pearl beads and crystals that all dangle from the toggle clasp, worn up front. Matching earrings feature baby butterflies with blue beads and crystals on a steel ear wire. Chain is an 18 inch solid brass cable chain. earrings are an “in line” style about an inch long from top to bottom.

Butterfly Dreams Set, $75.00. Make her butterfly dreams come true here.

The “wow” gift for the LOYL (love of your life):

Will you love her always and forever? Proclaim your adoration with our 3-piece “Love Always and Forever” necklace, bracelet, and earrings suite. The set comes with our “I Love You” necklace described above, with the coordinating “Always and Forever” earrings. Additionally, you’ll receive our beaded bracelet with a heart charm on one end embossed with “always” in grade 2 braille, available in the same 3 color configurations as the necklace – copper with rose quartz beads, brass with lavender beads, and our stainless steel and aluminum version with blue agate beads. It’s a stunning set, and it’s a gift that we promise will keep on giving. She’ll love it, and you.

Love Always and Forever 3-Piece Set, $125.00. Shop for the Love Always and Forever Set here.

Need more gift ideas? Just drop us a note or call us! We also offer a complete custom design service, so if you want to know whether or not your braille jewelry gift ideas will work, we will help you make it happen. the final date we can accept a custom order for guaranteed on-time holiday delivery is Monday, December 10th, so get your ideas on our drawing board! Call 702-605-1265 or email customer.service at elegantinsightsjewelry.com.

Wishing you a very happy holiday season from all of us at Elegant Insights Braille Creations!

Sparkle on!

Laura

I have to admit, when preparing to write this post, I thought I knew what there was to know about birthstones. I mean, most of us probably know what our own birthstone is, if not those of our friends and loved ones, but I could easily rattle off all of them if you asked, along with a list of the alternates, the less expensive versions of the more pricey standard birthstone such as the one for April, which is diamond. So, in the spirit of “the best way to learn is to teach,” while reading up on birthstone lore, I discovered a few details I did not know. For starters, I always thought the whole birthstone thing was little more than a marketing gimmick. you know, a lure to drive customers into a jewelry store in pursuit of their gemstone talisman, a way to personalize an otherwise frivolous item which was out of reach for most people, and create demand.

Well, I was wrong. Okay, partially wrong. turns out, in 1912, an organization called the Jewelers of America published the definitive list of birthstone gems, which in fact became the modern marketing masterstroke we know and love today. However, experts claim birthstones can be traced all the way back to the bible.

According to the American Gem Society (americangemsociety.org), the origin of birthstones is believed to date back to the breastplate of Aaron which contained twelve gemstones representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

“There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.” Exodus 28:17-20.

The Breastplate was set with twelve Gemstones set in four rows of three: Sardius, Topaz, Carbuncle, Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond, Ligure, Agate, Amethyst, and Beryl, Onyx, and Jasper. In the 5th century AD, these gems became associated with the 12 signs of the zodiac, and eventually, with the 12 months of the year.

Not only have historians had difficulty in determining exactly which gemstones were being referred to in the breastplate “blueprint,” changing styles as well as changing availability of certain gems altered the standard birthstones list throughout the centuries. In 1952, the list was updated by the Jewelry Industry Council of America to include the addition of alexandrite to the month of June, citrine to November, pink tourmaline for October, replacing alternate lapis with zircon for December, and flipping the March standard and alternate gemstones of aquamarine and bloodstone. In 2002, tanzanite was added as a December alternate.

So, here is the standard birthstone list for your reference:

January – Garnet, February – Amethyst, March – Aquamarine, April – Diamond, May – Emerald, June – Pearl, July – Ruby, August – Peridot, September – Sapphire, October – Opal, November – Citrine, December – Topaz.

Here is a complete list of the alternates, according to the International Gem Society (gemsociety.org), along with the corresponding astrological signs:

Aquarius (Jan.21 -Feb. 21)
Garnet
Pisces (Feb.21 – Mar. 21)
Amethyst
Aries (Mar.21 – Apr. 20)
Bloodstone
Taurus (Apr.20 – May 21)
Sapphire
Gemini (May 21 -June 21)
Agate
Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Emerald
Leo (July 22 – Aug. 22)
Onyx
Virgo (Aug. 22 – Sep. 22)
Carnelian
Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
Chrysolite
Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov 21)
Beryl
Sagittarius (Nov. 21 – Dec. 21)
Topaz
Capricorn (Dec. 21 – Jan. 21)
Ruby.

Does it really matter which birthstone is yours? Not in my opinion. If you don’t like the color of your birthstone, then adopt a new one. Call it your “half birthday” birthstone, or your dog’s birthstone, or whatever you want. They’re all beautiful, so whichever you choose, sparkle on!

Laura