Tinsel Blog
Learn more about Tinsel's products, team and vision.
She journals while doing yoga to double-up on self reflection. She only watches television while food prepping for each week. She gets her reading in on the health center elliptical, and you once watched her knit a pair of mittens while schooling everyone in Scrabble on game night.
Gift-buying for a multitasker is all about keeping her happy, healthy, and on top of her game. Tinsel's picks for this busy bee will do just that.
Looking for the perfect gift for the office goddess in your life? You've come to the right place.
Whether she's report-writing, conference-calling, jet-setting, smart-phone wielding, or any combination of the four, this lady is about her business. She's making professional waves and - if she isn't already top dog - there's no doubt she'll be there soon.
Here at Tinsel, we like to enjoy the small treats in life, like warm sunlight on cold days, finding a comfortable pair of work pumps, or thinking of a good clapback right in the heat of an argument (instead of later, in the shower). Usually these little boosts of shine are left to serendipity, but since starting to sport their audio necklaces on the daily, ladies have noticed a major uptick. Order yours this season and you, too, can experience the thrill of these 5 unexpected Dipper moments
Okay, okay! We’ve got updates:
We’re back from checking on production in China. DIPPERS ARE BEING ASSEMBLED!
Right now we are in the middle of a week-long Chinese holiday which is slowing things down a bit, but we’re still on track to start shipping the first units by the end of the month. We're giddy just thinking about it!
Smartphones today are central to our lives, and personal audio is a vital extension of the way we use them.
A few weeks ago when Apple, a world leader in smartphones, made announcements about the iPhone 7 and AirPods, there was a mixture of excitement and frustration around the latest news.
We received our first batch of CNC'ed samples, and we're proud to report that The Dipper is looking just dazzling. Take a look at how the new CNC Dipper is outshining its older die cast counterpart. Not to mention our new packaging is definitely on point!
We're packing our bags for China, y'all.
Team Tinsel is gearing up for a trip to our factory this week. We got the pilot run of samples a few weeks back, much to our excitement. You’ll be happy to know that we are still on schedule for an October ship, despite some snags that have tried to kill our vibe.
After sharing a pretty lengthy and serious update with y'all last time, we've decided to keep this one as short and sweet as our (CEB) Chief Executive Baby.
We're happy to report that everything is still on track with our latest Dipper production timeline. In fact, the factory just completed a small sample run of the CNC'ed Dippers, which will be arriving to Tinsel HQ next week.
To say we’ve been through a lot in the past month would be an understatement. We went to China and discovered that The Dipper’s chevron pendant had major problems. While this unexpected challenge has pushed out our ship date to October 2016, we are relieved to finally have a solution to the metal issues that have caused so many Dipper delays. You can read all about it here on our blog.
#cantstopwontstop <3
“Hardware is hard.” People love to throw that phrase around in Silicon Valley. I bet that if I had a nickel for every time someone said that phrase to me since starting Tinsel, we wouldn’t need to fundraise ever again. The hardware life is full of ups, downs and turnarounds, but Team Tinsel is a resourceful and determined group.
Tinsel founders Aniyia Williams and Monia Santinello are in Shenzhen, China right now, crossing T's and dotting I's before The Dipper goes into full production. This week, they've been brushing up on their technical Chinese with The Dipper's factory teams, discussing everything from final assembly to product packaging - including a few surprises!
We’re finally rounding the homestretch, and are oooh so close to entering into Mass Production Mode!
We’re going to brief you on the latest news, but first let’s take a moment to reflect back on how far we've come.
With all the talk of melting, plating, and finishing lately you’d think Team Tinsel was working on a restaurant. We won’t be churning out gourmet cuisine any time soon, but we’re certainly hungry for results!
Since our last update, we’ve been working around the clock on packaging and perfecting the finer details of The Dipper.
Now that we’re off-tool, we’re at work fine-tuning things like the perfect hues of gold and gunmetal, the experience of switching to earbud mode and back, and the lengths of The Dipper’s necklace chains.
One of the weird things about being a company that celebrates both fashion AND tech is forgetting that these spaces don’t normally cross paths for most people. We’re talking electroacoustics with fashion bloggers, discussing chain links with audio engineers, and expecting everyone to be on the same page. This can have its problems.
In the spirit of keeping things clear for Tinsel fans of all walks, we figured it’s time for a TwT vocabulary lesson. This time, we’re Tinkering with Tinsel terminology. Specifically, the production terms “prototyping” and “tooling,” which we use often, but haven’t quite defined for the less production-savvy.
Ladies and gents, we are so very close to getting our next samples. As we mentioned last time, we're waiting for T2s (our 2nd off-tool samples) to come from the factory but we hit a snag that's causing delays.
Summary: there are issues with getting the plating to look just right on our aluminum pieces. The factory has been working around the clock to fix this and hopes to have it nailed in the next few days. This has pushed our schedule back by another 2 weeks. Oy.
After long days of being “on,” a girl can start to think that the only way to shine is to keep on grinding -- but that’s not the case at all. Team Tinsel is all about self love, and that means understanding that the slow-burning, ambient glow of reclining and reflection is just as beautiful as the stage lights of peak activity. What’s below is just a sampling of some of our favorites, but you can exhale, recline, and shine with the full playlist, “That Evening Glow” now on Tinsel’s Spotify.
Since our last update, we’ve been working around the clock on packaging and perfecting the finer details of The Dipper.
Now that we’re off-tool, we’re at work fine-tuning things like the perfect hues of gold and gunmetal, the experience of switching to earbud mode and back, and the lengths of The Dipper’s necklace chains.
South by Southwest is a convention, not a competition, but if Team Tinsel had to choose a winner, we’d choose ourselves. Since our last newsletter, we’ve been perfecting the finer details of The Dipper, receiving plenty of attention and praise, and ringing in springtime sunshine with something new. All of this and a message from Tinsel CEO Aniyia Williams in our first newsletter of the spring season!
The Dipper came to be when two fashionistas, Tinsel founders Aniyia Williams and Monia Santinello, set out to create a new kind of jewelry.
That fact has made all the difference.
