spoonie-living:

Communication NecklacesbySpacerobotstudio on Etsy

We are on the autism spectrum, and also on the multiplicity spectrum, and struggled for a long time with communication and self-expression.

One day we got the idea to make a “Status Necklace”- a necklace with charms made of shrinky dinks, stacked on top of each other like a flip book, showing various things about how we were feeling. Who was there, how overloaded we were, what pronouns we wanted people to use for us at the moment, things like that. When verbal communication was freezing up on us, or when anxiety was preventing us from saying how we felt, flipping a charm on a necklace was often a form of communication that actually WORKED.

A lot of people we met expressed interest in the status necklaces, and we worked on more designs. We’ve heard of other autistic people using changing symbols to communicate - The interaction badges used at Autreat being one example - and wanted to come up with designs that would be easy to use, easy to wear, useful for communication, or just plain fun.

Thus, Spacerobot Studio was born.

We’re also using it to make jewelry designs for things that seem sorely lacking in pride jewelry- Neurodiversity, Autism, Multiplicity, and Asexuality.

Although these are made with folks on the autism spectrum in mind, I think they’d be great for folks dealing with chronic illness, too. And, if you’ve got both going on in your life… then it’s just mega-awesome!

By the way, if anyone’s curious about multiplicity (I know I was!), this blog looks to be a great resource.