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USA:Life saver in stylish medical-alert jewelry |
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2004-9-22
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 Watch out for this piece of jewelry! The next time you find people wearing medical-alert bracelets, one doesn’t have to settle for the often clinical-looking clunky metal jewelry.
An unexpected request for a medical ID bracelet opened up a whole new specialty for a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, entrepreneur, that gave her deep satisfaction.
"My youngest client was a 14-month-old girl with a heart condition," says Tina Sprigg.
Tina’s Sprigg''s Beadin'' Beagle Web site was found by the baby’s mother and she ordered a bracelet of glass flowered beads for her child.
Another mother, doubting she''d ever get her diabetic daughter to wear any medical-alert jewelry, ordered a Sprigg creation. The girl was so thrilled with the colorful bracelet, the mother reported, that for three days she refused to take it off.
Today, 15 months after fashioning her first such bracelet, Sprigg is selling 15 to 20 a month, at prices ranging from $20 for children''s bracelets to $35 for an adult''s.
Most are custom-made for children with diabetes, food allergies or medication dependencies. They feature semiprecious gemstones, crystals, pearls, glass beads and sterling silver. For girls, designs include red-and-black ladybugs, flower beads and pastel beads interspersed with baby pearls. For boys, Sprigg conjured a rugged-looking number (test-marketed on her neighbor''s three sons) that alternates beads of wood with beads of bone.
Most children, notes Sprigg, reject the traditional medical jewelry because they don''t want to call attention to their ailments. Her creations, on the other hand, are viewed more as fashion. The essential metal plate is there, of course. But, an eye-catching beaded band upstages it.
The nameplate (which bears on the front the wearer''s name and the medical alert symbol and on the flip side the specific medical warning) is provided by the customer. To assist customers, Sprigg''s Web site, www.beadin-beagle.com, has a link to Oneida Nameplate Co.
Sprigg knows well the importance of the nameplate.
"My dad was a fireman in Memphis for many years," says the 33-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident. When he showed up at accident scenes, he always made sure to check the wrist of an ill or injured person "because that''s going to tell you a lot."
Sprigg''s cottage industry (named for her beagle, Jake, who sits at her feet as she does the beading) began about a year and a half ago. She had received a beaded bracelet as a gift, and thought she''d like to try her own hand at jewelry making. She bought books and materials and was off and running. Her first efforts were college bracelets done up in school colors, sorority bracelets and bracelets sporting the names of children or pets.
She also did fancy pieces and fun pieces, which she began to peddle online and eventually at house parties. But it wasn''t till she got a call from a colleague in the small-business group she belongs to, that a new, unexpected opportunity arose.
The woman, who had breast cancer-related lymphedema, "asked if I''d be interested in making her a medical ID bracelet."
Sprigg happily obliged and posted the finished piece with similar samples on her Web site. "It just exploded," she says, with orders rolling in even from Alaska and Canada.
Sprigg, who has had her own medical problems both, as a child and an adult, feels a special pride when a child gets excited over one of her bracelets.
"I get such a warm feeling when parents e-mail me," she says. To change a child''s attitude about wearing a piece of jewelry that could save a life, she feels, is work well worth doing. |
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