The Tactile Cuff — MIMOSA's Take On Sensory Jewelry

tac·tile /ˈtaktl,ˈtakˌtīl/ adjective

“designed to be perceived by touch”

That definition captures EXACTLY what this bracelet was designed to be.

The Inspiration to Make Sensory Jewelry

From Madeline:

During the summer of 2020, I heard an interview between happiness author Gretchen Rubin and Joy researcher Ingrid Fetell Lee. (More on them below.) They were discussing how to find and create more joy and happiness at home while, as a country, we were still in quarantine. They talked about treating our homes as “sensory landscapes.”

As I remember it, they explained we could look at our spaces, not to ask ‘how good does it look’ or even ‘how much joy does it bring’ but how is it stimulating our senses? (Something sensory jewelry can do, too!)

They explained that since we weren’t going out and having lots of different sensory experiences out in the world, it was important for us to foster them at home. We could do things like rearrange furniture, move objects from one room to another at different times, and maybe, most importantly, be sure we are paying attention to the tactile experience of our spaces. We could include soft textures, slick surfaces, and things that are fun to touch and stimulate the senses in a variety of ways.

A Variety Of Sensory Textures Found In The Home

Around that same time, I happened to be in sort of a rabbit hole of studying the work surrounding Polyvagal Theory, learning how we can ground ourselves back to center through breath work and other calming tools (including sensory tools. ;)

My brain is never far from linking experience to jewelry, so somewhere in the mix, it hit me — wouldn't it be so cool to have a wearable ‘sensory landscape’ that could also be used as a calming tool, to stimulate your senses in a grounding way!? Cue the idea for a sensory jewelry piece!

I envisioned a cuff bracelet with all sorts of textures, like those old texture study models from my early design school days. It would be something you could run your fingers along and look at to get that varied sensory experience, wherever you are.

Researching textures for sensory jewelry

I started digging in on tools for sensory stimulation. It turns out there is a whole world's worth of sensory tools out there.

There are plastic discs you can buy with countless varieties of textures designed for you to run your fingers over. Just search the term “therapeutic sensory toys,” and you’ll find thousands of options. And I bought a bunch of them. ;)

My kids, friends, and I had them piled on the counter doing “research” on our favorite textures, and, inevitably, we all had that one texture that you look at and think “I want to touch it!” I started taking in the world in all of its tactile glory — textures in nature and textures in our everyday man-made environments.

Examples Of A Variety Of Sensory Textures

From what I’ve come to understand, these sensory toys can help us find calm by giving us something outside of ourselves to focus on. Running our fingers along different shapes and textures can help redirect our focus from internal nervous energy and give us a soothing way to release it.

Textures You'll Find on This Sensory Jewelry Piece

The goal with this sensory jewelry piece, the Tactile Cuff, was to make something beautiful and interesting to wear but also something like a miniature amusement park for your fingers to escape to.

Starting with the larger concave shape at the end, you can run your finger back and forth in it like you would a worry stone. (Remember those?)

After, you'll move along to the bubbly polka-dot orbs that are fun to press or run your fingers back and forth on.

Next are three large barrel shapes you can use for running your thumb side to side or across the top of the shape.

Following the barrel shapes, there are smaller ridges you can use your fingernails to click along or fingertips to press along a finer texture.

Then there are three large domes that are fun to run your fingers through a complicated sort of figure 8 shape.

Finally, there are a few larger ridges for more clicking with your nail or running your fingertip along however you'd like.

Aside from hopefully being a wearable grounding tool, the Tactile Cuff is a fun piece of jewelry meant to be playful and intriguing. However you choose to wear it, I hope you’ll wear it well.

More on the authors whose conversation inspired this sensory jewelry piece:

Ingrid Fetell Lee

Ingrid Fetell Lee (who founded @aestheticsofjoy, a personal favorite account of ours to follow) authored “Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness.”

The book is a deep dive into what and why certain things cause us to experience the emotion of joy. It’s full of fascinating studies, quirky backstories, and ways we can incorporate joy more intentionally into our daily lives.

Follow @aestheticsofjoy and @ingridfetell on Instagram for more joy.

Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is the author of “Happier at Home” where, over the course of a school year, she worked toward just that — being happier at home. (And after spending more time than ever at home over the past years, being happy in our own space feels super important!)

She takes what she learned about being happy in one of her other books “The Happiness Project” and brings it into the home environment.

Follow her for more happiness at @gretchenrubin.