For Charity: I "Heart" Africa Series

In addition to experimenting with different business models, Elizabeth and I wanted to use the earrings that we are so passionate about to give back to the community. Thus, we created the "For Charity" section of this blog. Every now and then we will design earrings to support various charities (if you have ideas or causes that you are particularly passionate about, please let us know!).

Elizabeth and I have chosen and designed earrings for the first charity that Etchable Expressions is supporting. Fifty percent (50%) of the sales made from these earrings will be donated to:

Motto: We're Providing Access to Clean Drinking Water, with Your Help!

Did you know that nearly 1 billion people don't have clean, safe water to drink? Elizabeth and I didn't. When we learned about the crisis, and that a few people can actually make a huge impact, we decided to get involved. The Water Project is working in five countries in Africa, including Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, to help hundreds of people in need find access to safe water and sanitation every week by funding water wells and other safe water projects. To learn more, please visit their website: http://thewaterproject.org.

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Now for the earrings:

There are five earring patterns and five available colors: yellow, red, green, blue and black. Any pattern can be matched with any color option. Pricing is as follows:

Within Olin Community:
"Africa" pattern = $14.00 per pair ($7.00 donated)
Every other patter = $20.00 per pair ($10.00 donated)

Outside of Olin:
"Africa" pattern = $18.00 per pair ($9.00 donated)
Every other patter = $24.00 per pair ($12.00 donated)

Earrings can be ordered through this blog by clicking HERE. You will be contacted to coordinate payment after we receive your order. If you are a student at Olin you can also track one of us down to place your order.

We hope that you enjoy both the earring designs and donating to this great cause!

Thanks!
Laura and Elizabeth

Design Corner: Jaime McCandless

Last semester, Jaime (Olin '12) designed a completely customized pair of earrings. This was the first pair of completely custom earrings that we produced at Etchable Expressions.


Thank you, Jaime, for agreeing to let us post your design. Enjoy!

Laura

Customization Levels and Pricing Options

Our basic earring design comprises two free-hanging plates. By changing earring shape, color and etching patterns, the possibilities are endless! Below are schematics of our product line:




The graphic below emphasizes the freedom available to you in terms of customization. Please click on the image to enlarge it.


We hope that this customization breakdown makes your customization options more clear and help you design your earrings! Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

General pricing is as follows:

# of plates	Plate shape	Orientation	Regular Price	Olin Community Discount
One	Square or Rectangle	Straight-hanging	$15	$11
Two	Square	Straight-hanging	$18	$14
Two	Rectangle	Straight-hanging	$24	$20
Two	Rectangle	Side-hanging	$26	$20
Three	Rectangle	Both	$30	$25

Please note that pricing may increase based on the degree of customization.

Etchable Expressions Classic: Olin O's

Last semester, Elizabeth and I were experimenting with how to incorporate both full and half through etching into our designs and stumbled across the Olin logo as a perfect template. The half etched portion of the earring naturally shows off the silver inherent in the Olin logo. By painting the back plate blue, we used the full through etching to accurately represent the other side of the Olin O. This design caught the attention of Olin students, faculty and staff almost immediately when first introduced last semester and was, in fact, etched onto the first pair of earrings that Etchable Expressions sold.

Olin O's, one of our most successful earring designs to date, is now available for purchase through the Olin Gear store! Click here to take a look.

We began thinking about how to make the Olin O earrings more personal when I received my Olin senior class ring earlier this semester. I know several friends who did not purchase class rings because they either do not wear rings or didn’t find the class ring designs particularly appealing. But what if they had pierced ears and might like Olin class earrings?

The Olin O earrings are now available with custom engraving based on a pair of earrings my mother customized for my sister (Maria, Olin ’08) last semester for Christmas. Engraving is available only if Olin O’s are purchased directly through Etchable Expressions (the pairs at Olin Gear, though available to ship immediately, do not and cannot include engraving). Plain Olin O’s that do not include engraving are $14.00, while custom engraved Olin O’s cost $16.00. For more information about available fonts and other engraving options, please leave a comment/contact us!

Elizabeth and I hope that you enjoy the design!

Cheers,

Laura

Testimonials

Hello!

If you purchased earrings from Etchable Expressions, please tell us about your experience and your opinions about the product you received.

We look forward to hearing your comments and feedback!

Thanks!
Laura and Elizabeth

Welcome!!

Etchable Expressions is a student-run business at the Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. We - that is, Laura Firstenberg ’11 and Elizabeth Poindexter ’13 - design and produce customizable, photochemically etched earrings.

Objective #1: Etchable
Inspired by the high resolution and precision of photochemical etching, our earring designs are very intricate, clear and clean-cut. In part, this business began in order to show off the beauty of an amazing manufacturing process!

Objective #2: Expressions
Etchable Expressions was created in order to share our passion for design and our love of earrings with you. We carefully designed basic plate designs and universal patterns that will fit a range of personalities. So, write what you think and show your colors; take this opportunity to express yourself!

This blog exists to showcase our products and design process – we hope that you find it both interesting and inspiring! You can order earrings through this blog, through our Etsy shop, or by emailing etchableexpressions@gmail.com directly. Please see our post on product tiers and ordering for more information.

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Our Origin
In Fall 2010, we participated in an experimental course at Olin focused on designing new curriculum that integrated both product design and entrepreneurship. The purpose of the course was to:

1. Outline a month-long process for designing, prototyping, marketing, selling and terminating a product given limited resources (ultimately, this process would represent a viable option for students to start sustainable and profitable businesses within the time-frame of a semester and given limited resources available to them at school)
2. Figure out a way to effectively teach this process to other Olin students in subsequent semesters

During the second half of the course, Etchable Expressions was born as an exploration of how to run a business with designer-oriented and highly customizable products given a short-term startup period and limited resources. Within a one five-day selling period at the end of the semester, we collected approximately $550 in profit, based on only four weeks of prior designing and prototyping. For more information about our process, please see our final project poster (click to enlarge).

Given the restricted duration of our project, we were not able to implement many of our ideas about expanding our range and number of customers. Thus, Etchable Expressions reopened for business in Spring 2011 in order to further experiment with our earrings designs and business model. Any feedback about our designs and business model are most welcome! Please comment anywhere on this blog or email us directly at etchableexpressions@gmail.com.