Ornamental beads and method of manufacture

Abstract

A set of ornamental beads and the method of making them. A bead can be customized by the use of an inner disk, which is made of plastic material and is about the size of a penny. Each inner disk has a through hole along its diameter. A customer selects whichever design, pattern, theme, pop culture items or logo, which is then applied to the face or faces of the disk, like stickers. The customization can take place over an E-commerce platform, where the customer can visualize various designs on screen, or in a store, where the sales clerk has a stock of such design stickers, ready to be applied to the inner disk. After the customer selects the requisite number of disks and their designs, if the beads are not already in stock, each of the disks is placed in a mold, which will be filled with liquid poly-gem material to form a bead-shaped object. The solidified poly-gem thus encases the inner disk to secure the design(s) on the inner disk within the bead-shaped poly-gem material. After the liquid poly-gem material cools down to a room temperature, the bead-shaped objects go through a grinding and polishing process to make them rounder and shinier. After the grinding and polishing process, the poly-gem beads are now ready to be strung into a bracelet, a necklace or any kind of personalized beads.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application claims priority from provisional applications, Application No. 60 / 486,604, entitled “THE BUSINESS IDEA OF DESIGNING, MANUFACTURING, MARKETING OF THE NEW CUSTOM JEWELRY BRACELET WHICH CONSIST OF A STRING OF BEADS CHARACTERIZING WEARER'S PERSONAL INTERESTS, IDENTITY AND FAVORATE SUBJECT, SO-CALLED ‘I.D. BEADS’ OR ‘IDENTITY BEADS’ UNDER WEB SITE NAME ‘BEADSFAIRY.’ THIS PRODUCTS IS DESIGNED TO BE AN INTERNET MARKET ITEM,” filed on Jul. 11, 2003. The provisional application is hereby incorporated into this application by reference as if fully set forth herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to ornamental jewelry, and more particularly relates to a set of beads, such as a bracelet or necklace, that can be customized and personalized by a customer from bead to bead. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Conventional fashion beads and bracelets are typically sold to consumers, as a finished product, either in a stor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] Alternately, to adequately stock up the inventory and speed up the delivery time, the beads can be first manufactured with a variety of inner disk designs. As the customer selects a combination of designs, the factory or merchant only has to pick out the proper beads and string them into a bracelet or necklace. By having the beads pre-made in large quantities, delivery of the finished products can be expedited.

[0010] An ornamental bead of such construction has an inner disk encased inside a poly-gem bead with the through hole already in place for the final assembly into a bracelet or a necklace. No drilling is needed on the final poly-gem bead, thus avoiding any damage to the bead and its design within.

Problems solved by technology

As the consuming public, particularly the gen-X and Y population, become ever more focused on individuality and personal identity, such uniformity or conformity becomes very undesirable to the would-be consumers.

Such individual customization is quite cost-prohibitive, especially at a bead-by-bead level, since the individual beads forming a bracelet or necklace can only be mass produced by the factory.

None of them allows a consumer to customize or individualize the designs from bead to bead.

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