Friendship Bracelets: Fibonacci & Planetary

Hi,

We’ve got ~150 of the Planetary Bracelets completed and soon we’ll have an equal amount of the Fibonacci Friendship Bracelets finished. For the 356 people receiving this reward, check your email for a survey about which type you’d like. We’ll also update addresses and contact information. Since I know a few of you are angry, I’ll have ‘mood’ questions included in the survey. Feel free to vent if you’re angry. (Or surprise me, and let me know that you’re happy that someone (me!) is actually trying to make a difference in the world.)

I’m really happy with these bracelets – my team spent a lot of time designing them, and working out the details. We had long conversations about what we wanted in terms of materials, style and craftsmanship. I’ve backed several campaigns. I’m not always happy with the quality of my rewards. I wanted these to be good! I think you’ll appreciate the effort we made. 

​For example, the Fibonacci Friendship Bracelet is comfortable for long periods of time. I’ve worn the prototypes off and on for the past several months. There were some things that I didn’t like about my own experience with them, so they’ve gotten some minor edits along the way. Here’s an early design my friend saw in January.  We had incorporated the Vectran string that the #RobotNiel is going to climb this summer. However, after thinking it over, that material was too strong to be attached to a person. If the bracelet somehow got caught on something, your arm would give way before the string broke… This is much too hazardous. But it was important to us that you have a piece of this historic artifact - so we’ve reduced the quantity and the non-structural placement of the Ribbon within the bracelet. As for the Fibonacci Sequence, well, we just thought that was a nice touch. There’s no scientific relevance; we just think it’s neat. 

 As for the Planetary Bracelet, I confess that I had little to do with this design. I asked several people (women) to help with this one. I asked for a ‘space theme’ and I was met with a blank stare sometimes. But as we worked on – and threw-out – many individual designs, one idea kept recurring: the planets. So after several brainstorming sessions with my mom’s friend (the one who ultimately created these) we came up with an idea that we all liked. Each planet is represented in the circle of the solar system. (Yes, we purposely left Pluto off the bracelet… it was a tough decision. Really.  Because some of our technical advisors and friends helped demote Pluto’s status, we figured it was important to be technically correct.) Things we obviously couldn’t be accurate on are scale and distance; otherwise your bracelet would be the size of a big parking lot! I wore this design for several weeks. It’s comfortable – but I didn’t like how Jupiter was so big and clunky. After a while, I got used to it. Eventually, I decided that I liked it enough to go into production. 

​For what it’s worth. In public, hardly anyone asked me about the Fibonacci, but several people asked about the Planetary style. I found that I really liked telling the story about each. I hope you will to. 

The stone of Jupiter is heavy, and makes a solid thack when it hits the desk. At first, this got on my nerves. Later, I learned to appreciate the weight and substance of it. It’s hard to describe, but it helped make the whole thing seem more ‘real’. (But in the end, my go-to is the Fibonacci version.) As for the Vectran, again, we didn’t want to incorporate that into the foundation of the bracelet. So instead, we created a “Ribbon” connecting the Earth and the Moon. Symbolically, I’m torn. I asked people that wear a lot of bracelets, and they like it, so that’s what we’ve got for you. 

For those folks that bought the Necklace and Earring sets, they will be similar to this Planetary version, but we’re going to get a ‘better’ Earth, so that each of the three pieces tie together stylistically. 

Take care, mjl