It’s not every day that you’re invited to design your own jewelry with an expert team who can make the pictures in your head come to life, but that’s exactly what happened a few months back. I was approached by the team at CustomMade to produce nerdy rings of my choosing, and now they’re real and they’re amazing!
I’m a nerd, but I’m also a huge car enthusiast so combining those two loves was perfect. The first thing that popped into mind was Transformers and I happen to adore Bumblebee so I decided he had to be the first ring. Next up, KITT, the snarky car with the glowing red eye that’s a bit like a Cylon but without the whole “kill all the humans” angle.
The design process was very simple, with the guys at CustomMade doing all the heavy-lifting while I supplied my ideas. The toughest part was coming up with sketches, because the average two-year-old has better drawing skills than I do, so I asked for a little help from my brother-in-law. He can actually draw, so I described what I was thinking and he drew up some amazing designs. (Herein I officially thank John Wakelin, ensuring I still get invited to Thanksgiving.)
The sketches he drew were incredibly detailed, and my first thought was that they were going to be absolutely impossible to turn into real rings. I handed them over to Eric Toczko, who runs the Co-Design program at Custom Made. He has an official title but I think of him as “Amazing Coordinator Guy Who Makes Amazing Rings Come To Life, Because, Amazing” which is sadly too long for a business card.
Somehow he actually took the pencil sketches I provided and turned them into exactly what I had in my mind’s eye. They’re not just close to what I envisioned, but absolutely perfect! I love the little blue sapphire eyes on Bumblebee and that KITT gets his lights from rubies and diamonds. It’s a little hard for me to believe that what started as nothing but ideas in my head are now actual rings that people can buy and wear.
Both the Bumblebee and KITT rings are available only at CustomMade where they are made-to-order and shipped directly to you. I really hope all the nerds out there enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed creating them with CustomMade!
