A Magnet for Innovation [Interview with Alphaline Design]

Three girls talk about how to make clasp-free jewelry

Natalie, Gretchen & Brook are three sisters with a passion for beauty, aesthetics and functionality. They channel their creativity through Alphaline Design – an innovative jewelry line that combines form and function.
Their unique approach towards conventional clasping led them to devise an alternative way of wearing jewelry – their clasp-free magnetic heart necklace is the first product in their new line of jewelry that will incorporate magnets into the overall design and bypass the usual back-of-the-neck clasps.

Gretchen and Natalie sit for an interview in which they take us through their work process and share some of their upcoming designs for 2013.

Q: How did you come up with Alphaline Design?

Gretchen: When Natalie and I first started we knew that we wanted to have a line of jewelry that was easy to put on and went around the typical clasp at the back of the neck. We’ve been researching and developing for about a year. We originally started with water-jetting letters – we were going to have an opening in each letter that you slip around a loop. This is how we came up with our business name – Alphaline Design, deriving from the word alphabet.

Q: But you didn’t follow through with your original plan?

Gretchen: Well, first we did some testing with the water jet letters and realized it needed something more. This is when it dawned on me that we can use magnets. Then we switched gears and went into developing the magnet concept. We chose doing a charm design rather than the alphabet as a start. But because we hope to do the alphabet with the magnets one day, we kept the name Alphaline.

Natalie: We needed to start out with something simple. As you can imagine, our original vision with Alphaline Design was to have initials that would connect at some point. Since there are so many letters in the alphabet, each charm would need to have a unique design. That’s when we decided to work with magnets, to make it more efficient from a design standpoint. We decided to start out with objects rather than taking on an entire alphabet and researching how to make all those work.

Q: So this is how you originally came up with the clasp-free magnetic heart necklace?

Natalie: Yes, that was the first object we created. We had a couple of them made locally in San Diego and we did some testing with the magnets and saw that they work great, so we went into a larger production scale. We are going to be adding new designs as of 2013 – we are working on increasing our product line with different shapes and designs.
Our original piece was a larger heart and then we decided to have something a little more feminine, so we had it scaled down a little bit. Our first production run was 50 pieces of the smaller size and we just sold out of our first batch last week.

Q: Could you tell us more about your work process?

Gretchen: First, we start off with a 3D drawing. The design of the heart is drawn in a 3D drawing program and those sketches are then sent to a 3D printer. The 3D printer is like a mini printer that actually prints a plastic prototype. Basically they take the drawing file and print it in shape. And from there they go to the manufacturer – a jeweler that makes the mold and casting, so we are actively involved in the entire design process.

Q: What can we expect in terms of new designs?

Natalie: We actually have another batch of the small heart coming in next week, so our efforts will be in marketing those. As far as designs in the pipeline, we are working on a larger heart, a hummingbird and bubbles. I know these designs sound a little bit simple, but after you see them they are so unique – basically taking an object and cutting it in half and putting magnets in between. This is something we’ve never seen before. We’ve seen a couple of pieces with magnets that clasp in the back, but nothing like this – we’ve managed to incorporate them into the design of the jewelry itself.

Q: What was the main reason behind the creation of clasp-free jewelry?

Natalie: Well, there are so many people that this product can apply to, like people with dexterity issues. For example, our grandmother has a hard time with the conventional necklace clasp and this is an easier approach of clasping a necklace. I think a lot of women have problems putting on a clasp at the back of their necks, as well as clasping a bracelet. So I really feel like this is going to affect the way people wear their jewelry.

Q: Where do you take the materials for your products?

Gretchen: We order from a website in California that sells rare earth magnets. I’ve done a lot of research on the subject because I have to know the size of the magnets when they are going into 3D production. The chain comes from House of Gems and then all this goes to the jewelry manufacture , who is working in Georgia and he puts this all together and implements the final product. We can safely say that our products are manufactured in the USA, which is rare nowadays, considering that most production has been outsourced.