#scichic

[startorialist]

We’ve been in awe of the creativity and productivity of Sci Chic (aka Erin Winick) ever seen we first came across her designs. So naturally, we are excited to bring her work to our very first appearance at AGU (follow along on Twitter and Instagram!). 

All of her pieces are 3D printed and inspired by science and perfectly combine aesthetics and nerdiness. For example: her lunar trajectory necklace which illustrates the orbital trajectory of Apollo 11. 

Most exciting of all are the 3D printed metal designs we are carrying at the BOOTHtique this time around, featuring the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s Juno Mission, among others. They are not to be missed! 

Emily is rocking her starfield earrings in plastic and necklace in metal. 

- Summer

Disclosure: this designer has paid to be featured on our blog.

[alternativemasquerade]

Are you part of the STEM squad? #scichic #scichicmonthly #scichicfashionbox #stemsquad #thestemsquad #jointhestemsquad #femaleengineers #femalesinstem #engineering #girlpower

[micaramel]

Science is a constant source of wonder as it helps us better understand our world, our universe, and ourselves. Without a passion for the field, the human race wouldn’t have gotten very far—so why not celebrate the Earth, Moon, and beyond? Creative science jewelry offers a subtle and stylish way to do just that. Through the likes of necklaces and earrings, you can honor this expansive field. Although space is an overwhelmingly popular subject, there’s plenty of accessories that pay homage to chemistry and biology, too.

Some of our favorite pieces let science do the talking. Etsy shop BeautySpot, for instance, has created a gorgeous, statement-making necklace that uses real hi-res photos of the Milky Way in its colorful pendants. As they hang from an antique brass chain, the amazing ethereal swirls are front and center. Their striking details are sure to add pizzazz to your everyday outfits.

Other jewelry incorporate science into the heart of their designs. The Solar Spectrum necklace by Boutique Academia is one that conceals a colorful secret within. When it’s worn, it looks like a silver pendant with a dark interior. But once it’s held up to the light, you see a rainbow whose colors are separated with tiny black lines—they represent the chemical makeup of our sun!

Why not show science some love with creative jewelry?

Solar System Necklace by BeautySpot

DNA Ring by Deja Jewelry

Dendrite Brooch by Nervous System

Fibonacci Necklace by somersault18:24

Microscope Necklace by Boutique Academia

Periodic Table of Elements Cufflinks by The Silver Diva

Serotonin Molecule Sterling Earring by arajera

Solar Spectrum Necklace by Boutique Academia

Corollaria Necklace by Nervous System

Anatomical Heart Necklace by Boutique Academia

Galaxy Resin Ring by SerasBeach

Molecule Necklace by Rosa Vila Boutique

Lunar Orbit Earrings by ThinkGeek

Neuron Necklace by Delftia

Jupiter Stud Earrings by Age Of Akuarius

Space Flight Laser-Engraved Wood Brooch by Juniper and Ivy

Moon Phase Necklace by SciChic

Meteorite Dust Time Capsule Pendant by We the Sciency

Fossil Necklace by Bijoux Malou

Stackable Solar System Rings by Yugen Tribe

Space Glass by Satoshi Tomizu

Moss Specimen Necklace by Moss of the Woods

Solar Orbit Necklace by ThinkGeek

Lasercut Velociraptor Dinosaur Necklace by designosaurYEAH

Heartbeat Necklace by Boutique Academia

Sun and Moon Ear Cuff by Luani

Flask Ring by Martha Ponce de Leon

If you’re looking for science jewelry to specifically celebrate Mother Nature, we’ve also got a list of 23 wearables inspired by Earth’s natural wonders.

The post 25+ Pieces of Science Jewelry Celebrating the Wonders of the Universe appeared first on My Modern Met.

from My Modern Met http://bit.ly/2nSChm8

[sci-chic]

Check out this review of our monthly science fashion subscription box!

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Erin Winick

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Erin Winick. Erin is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida and the CEO of Sci Chic. She is also currently an intern at Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa, CA.

How do you work with technology today? My company Sci Chic uses 3D printing and laser cutting technologies to make jewelry that is inspired by science and engineering.

What drives your interest in technology? I have always loved making things. When I was a kid, I built Rube Goldberg machines and K'Nex roller coasters around my parents house. After moving into mechanical engineering, I have loved delving into new 3D printing and 3D modeling technologies that allow me to make tons of new things quickly in my own home.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first coding experience was my freshman year of college. I remember thinking, "How are these numbers and letters going to make all these amazing apps and programs I see around me?" Although coding isn't my main focus, I am so happy to have a background using multiple coding languages and to have a basic understanding of this important area.

What was your pathway to working in technology? I think a few things led me here. First of all, my passion for making, math and science led me to mechanical engineering. I realized the power that exists behind all of the new manufacturing technologies out there and wanted to be on the cutting edge of what technology is used for. Second, I think my exposure to using machines at a young age made this seem less daunting. The machine I speak of is a sewing machine. I have always sewn with my mom, everything from pajamas to Halloween costumes.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? I think many young girls do not perceive science and engineering as the creative fields that they are. I think it is crucial to expose young girls to these aspects of the field so they will truly know the possibilities that are out there. By creating an even balance of men and women in the workplace, we are creating a balance of different views and opinions and bringing more of our population into an area full of innovation helping move society forward.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? I have lots of mentors close to me, but as far as people out in society, I draw motivating role models from a variety of industries:

Debbie Sterling - I love her diligence in developing new toys to inspire girls to get into engineering. She has filled a gap I wish I had when I was a kid. I hope to try to make a similar impact with Sci Chic.

Gary Vaynerchuk - He is an entrepreneur that exemplifies hard work and hustle to me. Seeing how he lives his life dedicated to his mission motivates me to follow my own path.

Neil deGrasse Tyson - I truly believe that creating a more science literate public will create a better tomorrow. He made such an impact on me growing up. I hope to work to make at least half this same impact on other young kids.

What most excites you about the future of technology?             I am so excited because I have no idea what the next big thing will be. I could make a prediction but everything is changing so fast. From the four years ago when I started college that technology landscape has already changed drastically. I see how quickly life is changing and advancing with new discoveries happening every day. I am excited to be able to witness the rise of new technology and understanding.

What advice would you give to your younger self? You can follow whatever path you want. Listen to yourself. There will be people you trust giving you advice directing you down a million paths, but only you know what your dream is. Take what you are learning and what you love and combine them into something new and amazing.

[startorialist]

FUN FACT #1: So many of our favorite startorial jewelry designers are women run or family run small businesses! If you’re looking to do some Small Business Saturday holiday shopping, go support them and tell ‘em we sent you. There are some incredible deals to be had...

Browse all our archived posts for each company to remind you who’s who: 

Astronobeads

Eclectic Eccentricity

Lost in Space

Pretty Little Earth

SciChic

Stern Design Works

Yugen Tribe

- Summer

[scichic]

Rolling in the Dirt

Before I had my daughter, we had a nice microsuede couch. Now with a three year old around, it’s not so nice anymore. So, we keep our lights low. 

Kids are naturally dirty, but some more so than others. We’ve all seen those kids burying themselves in the sand at the park (okay, my kid is usually one of them). Turns out, all that dirt can actually keep kids healthy. Dr. Jonathan Silverberg of St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City says, “studies suggest that rolling in the dirt from time to time may be a good thing for kids.”

Silverberg authored a study to try to find out why Americans have more allergies than people in other countries. He specifically looked into how birthplace might affect this.

What he found was that kids born in the US have a higher incidence of allergies (everything from asthma to eczema to food allergies), even compared to foreign-born kids who live in the States.  Silverberg reasons that this correlation could be due to our diet, climate, or hygiene. “The hygiene hypothesis suggests that early-life exposures to infection or an unclean environment may protect against allergies.” In other words, by allowing children to come in contact with germs, we're building up their immune systems.  And stronger immune systems mean fewer allergies.

See, I knew there was a reason I let my child eat food off the floor.  

But can we really blame our cities for their good sanitation?  Should we stop teaching our children to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer to keep germs in check? (Okay, assuming we teach our kids these things.  I'll admit I have been a little lax in this department... I sometimes look at my daughter's hands as she's eating and wonder if she's washed them since the day before.  Don't judge me!  I'm saving her from allergies!)

Silverberg has a goal to determine which factor specifically is leading to this allergy increase in US-born kids. But while he investigates, perhaps we should get out a make a mud pie – or maybe compete in a Muddy Buddy run.  And I’ll give myself props for my less-than-clean couch.

[startorialist]

In addition to the solar eclipse collection from @svahausa, several of our favorite designers have created something special to celebrate the Great American Eclipse that is happening in just one month!

From top to bottom:

3-D printed solar eclipse necklace available in plastic and steel (gold or bronze) from @sci-chic

Solar eclipse necklace from Boutique Academia

Turquoise eclipse pendant (silver or gold) and eclipse lariat necklaces from @yugentribe

Solar eclipse bracelet and Earth-Moon-Sun bracelet set from @astronobeads

Planetary Society solar eclipse t-shirt and gift set with glasses and sticker from @chopshopstore

Make sure you know how and when to look at the Sun and that your eclipse viewing glasses are safe, and ENJOY!!!

--Emily

[startorialist]

I have saved a very special AAS229 booth vendor for last! The delightfully dorky 3-D printed jewelry of SciChic (aka @sci-chic) has been on our radar for at least a year, and they are now our partner in our first official design collaboration!

Summer and I chose to represent the iconic shapes of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Kepler detectors/field of view, and the JWST segmented primary mirror for our collection. We explained why in an interview with SciChic founder Erin:

Emily: These pieces represent the tools we use to understand the Universe, and as such they’re both a celebration of the remarkable technological achievements we are capable of as a species as well as the big questions we will try to answer with this telescope.

Summer: For the engineer still inside me, these pieces emphasize how amazingly creative we humans are to pull more and more information out of the light the Universe sends to us. Hubble, Kepler, and JWST are phenomenal feats of engineering, each of which has (and will) open(ed) new frontiers of science for us. Holding these designs in my hand reminds me how we reach for the stars even though we’re stuck here on Earth.

Each design is available as plastic earrings (in several colors, including glow-in-the dark!) or a necklace in plastic or one of several metals. In the second photo above I customized my blue plastic HST necklace with a silver Sharpie marker, and it turned out pretty well! Best of all, a portion of the proceeds of sales of this piece will go towards the Young Women's Leadership Network!

–Emily

Full disclosure: vendors paid to be represented at our booth in order for us to cover the costs, but we are only representing awesome vendors!

[startorialist]

Things have been a little quiescent around here for the last few weeks (or months, who am I kidding), but it was for a good reason that we are finally ready to announce in today’s Feature Friday…

We will have a BOOTH-tique at the AAS 231 conference this January! We had a booth last year at AAS 229, but this year conference attendees will be able to buy products directly from us, thanks to the help of Kelle Cruz of ScienceBetter Consulting! We’re placing orders with about 20 of our favorite designers for t-shirts, ties, scarves, tote bags, jewelry, stickers, pins, and more! We are still finalizing our wares, but so far we are anticipating items from Slow Factory, Eclectic Eccentricity, Yugen Tribe, SciChic, Shadowplay NYC, Becky Queen of Frocks, Surlyramics, Pretty Little Earth, Pacalin, Astronobeads, Cyber Optix, Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild, and more!

Even better, we’re also offering eGift Cards online before the conference! There are six designs available, and you can load the card with any amount from $5-$500. (In the interest of full transparency, the more gift cards we sell, the more wholesale purchases we’ll make!) These would make fabulous gifts for anyone attending AAS 231, so astronomers, it’s time to update your holiday wish lists!

I know most of our wonderful readers aren’t professional astronomers or astronomy students, and so won’t be attending AAS 231 (which isn’t open to the public, though there are press conferences and many astronomers tweet about it), but if this goes well, we’ll be able to spend more time (and money!) on the blog itself. Who knows, maybe we’ll even venture into other sales realms… In the meantime, we will continue to explore, share, and support the talented, dedicated creators of the startorial Universe!

–Emily & Summer

[startorialist]

TBT to our amazing inaugural booth adventure at AAS229 last week! It was a smashing success and the place to be during the conference. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, supported us, helped make it happen. 

Thanks to all our amazing vendors: Stern Design Works, SMLX Good, Tactile Melodies, Celestial Buddies, Svaha, Eclectic Eccentricity, Pacalin, Lost in Space Jewelry, Yugen Tribe, Boutique Academia, SciChic, Pretty Little Earth, Kokoba, Astronobeads, and Shenova. 

And thanks to all our stellar volunteers: Vanshree Bhalotia, Colleen Cleary, Victoria DiTomasso, Stephanie Douglas, Marina Dunn, Jaquelin Erazo, Haley Fica, Paige Godfrey, Karen Knierman, Rachael Livermore, Rebecca McElroy, Ashely Pagnotta, Teresa Panurach, Nicole Cabrera Salazar, Jeanine Shea, Jennifer Weston.

As we mentioned to everyone we spoke with, almost all of our vendors are offering SPECIAL DISCOUNTS! You can find a link to all the vendors and their discount codes on either the conference website or the app (as pictured above). Discounts are good at least through Sunday, January 15 with the possibility of extension...stay tuned... 

NOTE: the more you support (read: buy from!) our AAS229 vendors, the more likely we are to expand booth next year and actually be able to sell things on site! 

- Summer & Emily

[startorialist]

Another company we’ve loved since their @kickstarter is Shava (@svahausa). Their first kickstarter was for gender-neutral and -non-sterotype-conforming kids clothes, and more recently they launched dresses with science-themed patterns. In addition to dresses and skirts they have a fantastic collection of geeky baby onesies and adult accessories (including jewelry by @scichic - sometimes the startorial Universe seems rather small!). Make sure you read about the complete Svaha story, at least for the adorable kid photos!

In addition to the discount for AAS229 attendees, right now they are offering a free mystery kids shirt with each order - how fun is that?! I think I hear this dress calling my name... --Emily

Full disclosure: vendors paid to be represented at our booth in order for us to cover the costs, but we are only representing awesome vendors!

This post contains affiliate links.

[startorialist]

While Summer runs the booth at AAS229 in Texas, I’ll be posting about the vendors (a rather corporate-sounding but nicely catch-all term for the artists/ designers/entrepreneurs/companies we’re partnering with), from my couch NYC! The conference officially starts tonight and runs through Sunday, January 7. After that we’ll resume our regular posting themes, and because of our hiatus we have a LOT to share!

Watch this space for more on our featured vendors* today!

ETA: Thanks to all our amazing vendors: Stern Design Works, SMLX Good, Tactile Melodies, Celestial Buddies, Svaha, Eclectic Eccentricity, Pacalin, Lost in Space Jewelry, Yugen Tribe, Boutique Academia, SciChic, Pretty Little Earth, Kokoba, Astronobeads, and Shenova. 

--Emily

*Full disclosure: vendors paid to be represented at our booth in order for us to cover the costs, but we are only representing awesome vendors!

[startorialist]

As promised I am highlighting the featured designers who have supported our BOOTHtique at AAS231 - the good news is, it has been an amazing success so far! The bad news is… well, I don’t see a down side! I guess we will run out of stock, but we will send would-be-customers directly to the designers to expand their startorial wardrobes even further!

I can’t believe it’s been less than two years since we first posted about @sci-chic​ - we’ve been through so much! From being fans to meeting in person in NYC (how did we not take any photos?!) to collaborating on a capsule collection, we have been in awe at everything Erin has made!

Here’s some of our favorite pieces from her many science-fabulous designs:

James Webb Space telescope primary mirror necklace in gold steel - we had to try this one in metal, and it had to be gold!

Hubble Telescope necklace in stainless steel - I wish we had ordered more of the metal pieces because they are absolutely beautiful: solid without being hefty, slightly shiny and subtly textured. Photos don’t do them justice!

Kepler field of view necklace in colors plastic - okay, so we are definitely biased toward our own collection, but you can read about why on the SciChic blog!

Solar System necklace - these are all the planets in our Solar System to scale in size - feeling tiny?

Moon phases earrings - we just had to order these in black, white, and glow in the dark plastic!

Star field necklace - Simply stellar!

Check out all our @sci-chic posts!

--Emily

Disclosure: these designers have paid to be featured on our blog and at the booth.