Patent Application
20050199003
1. Invention Field of Endeavor
The invention may include personal adornments such as jewelry having direct body attachment. More particularly, the invention may include a nonpiercing earring having an ornament that contributes to a pierced effect.
2. Background Information
Humans have been directly attaching ornaments to their bodies for thousands of years. Ears were probably first pierced to ward off demons and spirits who were believed to be repelled by metal. Sailors used to have an ear pierced in an attempt to improve their eyesight and, if the bodies washed up somewhere, the earring would pay for a Christian burial.
Earrings have always been popular among women. However, as the Roman Republic grew more prosperous with wealth and luxury, earrings became as popular among men as they were among women. Like the Roman days, earrings once again have become popular among men, reflecting the world society's prosperity in wealth and luxury.
Tongue piercing is one of the most popular piercing due to its shocking and provocative effect. However, many people who desire to present such a shocking effect choose not to obtain a tongue piercing because of the drastic action needed to secure the jewelry. Several inventors have recognized this need and have sought to provide nonpiercing jewelry that would present a pierced effect.
U.S. Pat. No. D144,804, issued in 1945, discloses an earring having a discontinuous ornament fixed to each end of a U-shaped bar. The discontinuous ornament defines a space and the bar includes a screw-with-plate attaching member. As the earlobe resides between the discontinuous ornament and the plate, the earring is secured to an earlobe by tightening the screw. Ideally, to present a pierced effect, the earlobe should be forced into the noted space so that the fleshy lobe bulges outward and above the space. However, since the centerline of the screw-with-plate attaching member of U.S. Pat. No. D144,804 is offset from the midpoint of the space, it is unlikely that the earring of U.S. Pat. No. D144,804 would present a pierced effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,775 (“the '775 patent”), issued in 1985, discloses as a first embodiment an earring similar to U.S. Pat. No. D144,804 However, the earring of the '775 patent includes a screw-with-plate attaching member whose centerline is aligned with the midpoint of the space of the discontinuous ornament. A problem with the screw-with-plate attaching member is that it is expensive to manufacture, cumbersome to operate, and subject to being caked with grime.
The '775 patent additionally discloses another earring embodiment having a simpler attaching member. The U-shaped bar is attached to a first and second trimming half, where the trimming halves comprise the discontinuous ornament. The U-shaped bar is bent to include an angled section directly below the discontinuous ornament space. The angled section pushed the earlobe through the space. If the fit is too loose or too tight, the inelastic trimming halves may be bent to adjust the fit.
A problem with the second embodiment of the '775 patent is that bending the trimming halves causes the trimming halves to misalign so that discontinuous ornament loses its pierced effect. In addition, bending the trimming halves subjects the U-shaped bar to metal fatigue. A further problem is that it is difficult to install the earrings of the '775 patent. What is needed is an apparatus and method to overcome these and other problems.
The invention includes a nonpiercing jewelry. The nonpiercing jewelry may include a support, an ornament, and a pad. The support may have a first support end, a second support end, and a base positioned between the first support end and the second support end. The ornament may have a first piece coupled to the first support end and a second piece coupled to the second support end to define a gap between the first piece and the second piece. The nonpiercing jewelry further may include a post or adhesive to attach the pad to the support.
Support 102 may be any structure that may hold ornament 104 in place. Support 102 may be made from jewelry structure material such as metal, plastic, rubber, and naturally occurring substance. Support 102 may include a first support end 108, a second support end 110, and a base 112 positioned between first support end 108 and second support end 110. Support 102 further may include a post 114 coupled to support 102.
Post 114 may be utilized to secure pad 106 to support 102. For example, post 114 may be arranged to define between post 114 and support 102 an opening 116 leading to a slot 118. As illustrated in
Ornament 104 may be any object representing a perforating object, such as an arrow, sword, lance, or needle. Additionally, ornament 104 may be any object that does not represent a perforating object, such as scissors, ankh, guitar, microphone, water pipe, labrys, pagan broom, pagan knife, wand, symbol, collector item, trademark, or combination thereof. In general, ornament 104 may convey any single-axis symmetric, multi-axis symmetric, asymmetric open or closed image having straight or soft (curved) lines, where the lines may be crossing or non-crossing.
To aid in presenting a pierced effect, ornament 104 may include a first piece 124 attached to first support end 108 and a second piece 126 attached to second support end 110, the arrangement of which may define a gap 128 and a gap width 129. The first piece 124 may include a first taper end 130 and have other sharp edges removed to minimize or prevent damage to that part of the body to which support 102 and ornament 104 is attached. Similarly, the second piece 126 may include a second taper end 132 and have other sharp edges removed. Post 114 may be attached to support 102 so that pad 106 may be aligned with respect to a midpoint of gap 128.
Pad 106 may include a body 134. Pad 106 may be solid or may define a cavity 136 within body 134. Where Pad 106 is solid, pad 106 may be made of a material capable of being pierced by post 114 to form a cavity 136. Examples of such material include rubber, resilient polystyrene plastic, and soft, resilient metals. Support 102 may provide a stable platform on which pad 106 may be compressed and uncompressed.
Cavity 136 may extend partially through body 134 or extend completely through body 134. Pad 106 of
Pad 106 may include a cushionlike mass of soft material. Moreover, pad 106 may include a material or a structure, each of which may be marked by the ability to return towards an original shape or position, as after having been compressed. For example, pad 106 may include material such as silicone, rubber, foam, cork, polyurethane, polystyrene, polyolefins, fluoropolymers, vinyl, naturally occurring substance, and gel that may be contained in a gel pack. A material of pad 106 may have a Durometer hardness of approximately 20 to 90 Shore “A”, approximately 50 to 70 Shore “A”, and may have a Durometer hardness of approximately 60 +3/−3 Shore “A”.
Pad 106 may be defined by a variety of shapes, including a pad shape that is at least one of cylindrical, tubular, toroidal such as from an O-Ring, rectangular, spherical, gum-dropped, mushroom capped, or any combination of the same.
To aid in the piercing effect, some of the components of nonpiercing jewelry 100 other than ornament 104 may be of a flesh tone, translucent, clear, or transparent color. For example, support 102 may be made of jewelry structure material such as a clear acrylic while pad 106 may be of a clear silicone rubber.
Nonpiercing jewelry 100 may be formed by urging second support end 122 of post 114 into cavity 136 so that a portion of body 134 may reside in slot 118.
To form body assembly 300, pad 106 may be compressed and fleshy part 302 may be inserted between pad surface 144 and first taper end 130 and second taper end 132 of ornament 104. Compressed pad 106 may work against undersurface 304 to push fleshy part 302 through gap 128 to form a mound 306. Due in part to the soft, plump material of mound 306, mound 306 may form about and to some extent may overlap first taper end 130 and second taper end 132 so as to give the appearance that ornament 104 pierced fleshy part 302.
To aid in inserting fleshy part 302 between pad surface 144 and first taper end 130 and second taper end 132 of ornament 104, support 102 may exhibit resilient characteristics so that it may be bent temporarily to open gap 128 and automatically return to an original arrangement of support 102. Moreover, as illustrated in
It may be important that pad width 140 be large enough to cause mound 306 to form about first taper end 130 and second taper end 132. Additionally, it is important that pad width 140 not be so large as to prevent pad 106 from pushing fleshy part 302 through gap 128. Pad width 140 may be a function of gap width 129. Pad width 140 further may be a function of a density of fleshy part 302.
At 804, the user may combine a mold mixture and the wax jewelry structure in a container. The mold mixture may be any substance that may form around the wax jewelry structure, such as a mixture of investment powder and water.
At 806, the user may harden the mold mixture to form a hardened mold.
At 808, the user may remove the wax jewelry structure from the hardened mold to form a mold cavity. For example, the user may place the hardened mold with wax jewelry structure into an oven and heat the wax away. With the wax jewelry structure removed, the remaining cavity in the mold may be in the shape of the wax jewelry structure.
As an alternative to the lost-wax-casting method of 808 or a spin casting method, the user may present a hardened mold for injection molding, where the mold may include a mold cavity that may be shaped to have the reverse of a support, an ornament, and a post, where the support includes a first support end, a second support end, and a base positioned between the first support end and the second support end, and where the ornament includes a first piece coupled to the first support end and a second piece coupled to the second support end to define a gap between the first piece and the second piece, and where the post is attached to the support.
At 810, the user may insert jewelry structure material into the mold cavity.
At 812, the user may harden the jewelry structure material to form jewelry structure 101.
At 814, the user may remove jewelry structure 101 from the hardened mold.
At 816, the user may return to 810 and pour jewelry structure material into the mold cavity.
At 818, the user may finish jewelry structure 101, such as by polishing jewelry structure 101. Here, the jewelry structure 101 may be adapted to be assembled with pad 106 to form nonpiercing jewelry 100.
Support 102 and ornament 104 may be made from non-hydroscopic, non-allergenic, or hypoallergenic plastic or metal.
Support 1702 may include a first link 1706, a second link 1708, a third link 1710, and a fourth link 1712. First link 1706 and second link 1708 may be pivotally connected to each other through a pivot 1714. Pivot 1714 may include a registration to prevent first link 1706 and second link 1708 from rotating less than ninety degrees with respect to one another. Third link 1710 and fourth link 1712 may be pivotally connected to each other through a pivot 1716. Pivot 1716 may permit third link 1710 and fourth link 1712 to rotate along an x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, or a combination thereof.
Second link 1708 and third link 1710 may be slidably connected to one another for movement toward and away from each other. For example, second link 1708 and third link 1710 may be telescopically connected to each other.
Ornament 1704 may include a first piece 1718 attached to first link 1706 through a pivot 1720 and a second piece 1722 attached to fourth link 1712, the arrangement of which may define a gap 1724. First piece 1718 further may include a resilient structure to blast first piece 1718 into at least one position. For example, the resilient structure may include a spring 1726 removeably attached between the support 102 and the ornament 104. Here, the first piece 1718 may be thought of as being spring actuated. Blasting first piece 1718 onto fleshy part 302 and retaining first piece 1718 in that position may pinch fleshy part 302 to increase mound 306 and aid in presenting an illusion that the fleshy part 302 has been pierced by ornament 1704.
Ornament 1704 may be removeably attached to support 1702 to permit adjusting of the compression on the fleshy part 306 (
The nonpiercing jewelry of the invention may be utilized in any body piercing, including apadravya, belly, clitoris, ear, eyebrow, fraenulum, guiche, hafada, infibulation, labret, lip, navel, nipple, nose, palang, Prince Albert, septum, toe, and tongue. The nonpiercing jewelry of the invention may be used on humans, animals such as monkeys, and structures such as wax figures, items used in the movie industry, cloth, nylon, or artistic object.
The exemplary embodiments described herein are provided merely to illustrate the principles of the invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the subject matter of the terms of the claimed invention. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. Moreover, the principles of the invention may be applied to achieve the advantages described herein and to achieve other advantages or to satisfy other objectives, as well.
