Blind Bargains

#ACB18 Audio: Fearless Adventures In Art And Jewelry For Neat Artist Studio


J.J. is always looking for things to enhance his wardrobe ensemble. Perhaps a Braille embossed tie clip with Believe inscribed upon it will be the perfect accessory to that power suit and tie combo? In this interview Kate Schroder, Owner and Operator of Neat Artist Studio, describes the process in which she creates her well defined jewelry and art. Her company offers pins, keychains and more with the ability to fulfill custom orders for any occasion. To learn more, visit the Neat Artist Studio website for ordering information.

Our 2018 summer convention coverage is sponsored by Google.

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Transcript

We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.

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Transcribed by Grecia Ramirez

Direct from St. Louis, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ACB 2018, brought to you by Google
Our friends at Google are working hard to create great technology products for everyone. They’re inviting you to participate in Google user research studies, where you can help shape the future of accessible products and features and get rewarded for it. Check out our tweet for the sign-up link, at blind bargains, or head to google.com slash user research.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: We’re here in St. Louis, ACB 2018. I have found Kate Schroder. She is the owner and marketer and creator, everything; right? For Neat Artist Studio. They do some neat jewelry. Kate, welcome to the podcast.
KATE SCHRODER: Thank you so much for having me.
JM: You just gave me a neat keychain. Thank you, I really appreciate that.
KS: Yeah.
JM: What are some of the neat things that you have here?
KS: So I have a full range and line of braille jewelry, and pretty much everything that I do is in level-one braille, and I have single words on different pendants that I create. So I have anything from really nice words to some pretty silly words as well. But, like, my nice and inspirational words range from things like "Adventure,” “Art,” “Believe,” “Happy,” “Hope,” “Laugh”. Things like that.
JM: What are the silly words?
KS: So I’ve got some that – like, one of my favorites is a necklace that says, “I Just Farted".
JM: Love it.
KS: Yes.
JM: And no one would think to – like, oh. It’s a nice little braille phrase on a necklace, and you –
KS: Absolutely.
JM: -- and you have to tell them what it really says.
KS: Right.
JM: So how do people – what – you can get these on a necklace, you said; or a tie clip, or –
KS: Yeah. I’ve got necklaces, tie clips, lapel pins, cufflinks, earrings, and then keychains as well.
JM: And I noticed the braille – and I’ve seen a lot of jewelry in various places. It’s very well-defined and, you know, it’s true to form, the spacing, as far as, you know, it’s very – it’s exactly what it should be for braille, and it’s very easy to read.
KS: Well, thank you so very much. I developed our mold-making system for this jewelry. It’s all made out of porcelain, so my material is really pliable to start with. And the way that I did it is just used a slate and stylus, and I wrote all of the braille on a pretty thick piece of plastic, which, instead of using my stylus, I actually – just the stylus and the pressure of my hand, I had to use a hammer to push my stylus down in because the plastic was so thick. And then I made a plaster mold of that braille text, and then I pushed the clay into that, and I cut it out to shape. So it actually is very defined and true to form, like you were saying.
JM: Very neat.
KS: Yeah.
JM: I’m just picking a few of these up. And I see "Luck,” I see "Art". Where’s one of the big ones? How do you fit “Adventure” or I Just Farted”? Is that –
KS: Well, “I Just Farted” is one of the only ones that I do in contracted braille.
JM: With the J.
KS: But for the most part, I do –
JM: Yup.
KS: Everything is the level-one.
JM: This is the longer –
KS: So that’s the, “I Just Farted.”
JM: So it’s just more elongated, if you would --
KS: Yes. Absolutely.
JM: -- to fit in a longer -- as it compares to a shorter one. So you make it – it’s exactly, pretty much the length of the phrase.
KS: Right.
JM: So the, kind of, custom one – instead of having a whole bunch of extra space for shorter words. Do you do custom phrases yet or –
KS: I sure do. I – here’s another that’s kind of longer for you.
JM: Now, I’m reading these with one hand so we’ll see –
KS: Right. It’s really hard to get them with the package flying around.
No. I can do any custom order, actually. I can do names, phrases, you know, nicknames, anything like that.
JM: “Fearless.” There we go.
KS: Yeah. And then, some of the things that I do, I started doing some even longer ones. So I can do multisided pieces to where it’s a different word on four different sides of this pendant. And so then, people can have things like all four of their kids’ names on there or just different, longer phrases or, you know. Things like that can get kind of neat.
JM: So you can fit an entire Shakespeare play on a –
KS: I don’t know if somebody wants to wear appendant quite that big, but –
JM: That might be a little big; right? What are the – what kind of costs are you looking at for these type of things?
KS: So they run 30 dollars apiece, and then for the conference itself, I’m doing a buy one, get one 50 percent off.
JM: Oh. Fun.
KS: Yeah.
JM: If people happen to be here in time, they can catch that.
KS: Absolutely.
JM: What’s the website? How can people get more information?
KS: So it is neatartiststudio.com. And that’s neat, as in, how neat is that?
JM: Right. So the three words all put together, N-e-a-t, artist studio.com. Cool.
KS: That’s the one.
JM: Thank you so much.
KS: Thank you so much.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.


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