A set of Charmware embeddable circuit boards that hold a short push/pull MicroSD card socket, intended as jewelry components.
As a professional media creator, I use MicroSD cards to quickly offload large video files off my phone, while keeping my archive handy for future videos. To that end, I always carry a MicroSD-USB adapter, which is plugged into a Lightning adapter, which plugs into my iPhone. (In the past couple of years, my iDevices seem to have stopped being able to power a simple USB flash drive??)
(See: my mobile media setup [WIP])
…So anyway, this series allows me to stash those data cards inside jewelry. Because it’s cool. 🤩
Other applications:
Besides soldering on the socket, you can attach it to this PCB – or to any other piece of flat jewelry – with servo tape. That’s how I made the first prototype, and I continue to use this method sometimes; it’s so rugged that I can literally rip the card socket apart before the tape will detach.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3mKW2Q10lZE
Me wearing the black/gold scale maille earring, with it open to show a socket holding a MicroSD card
With the earring closed
The black/blue maille earring, open to show the Charmware-branded side of my prototype circuit board
Feb. 2026: I’m REALLY excited about this new scale maille jewelry series!! You can see where I had to trim the original board down, and I’ve got a new board in the works that’s WAY better. You can also see where I was messing around with nail polish, to see if I could get the (speedy but not super gorgeous) green boards to look a little nicer.
I haven’t seen this type of earring design anywhere, but I’m assuming it’s fairly common, since it’s literally stacked scale maille pieces. I think it’s really elegant, and since the scales are anodized aluminum, they’re super light as well. And since you can laser that stuff, I’m planning to make some more elaborate versions, plus custom/branded ones too :D