Pink Noise:
Pink Noise is the outcome of a creative collaboration between jewellery designer, Bijoux de Mimi, and Holster designer Deafmetal. The collaboration has seen the creation of a set of colourful hearing aids that allows hearing aid users to feel empowered as they have the freedom to express themselves. The implementation of the holster design means that the jewellery piece acts as a safety chain for the hearing aid.
We recently reached out to Amelia and Jenni to learn more about the collaboration and to find out why it’s such an important product for the deaf community. We would like to thank the both of them for taking time to respond to Signature and telling us more about this colourful collaboration.
The jewellery range aims to increase deaf awareness whilst equipping the deaf community with a new way to style their hearing aids and cochlear implants. Through creating this vibrant product, Pink Noise hopes to create a collection which ends the stigma surrounding hearing devices. The collaboration enables those with hearing devices to add their own spin and own personal touch. Through creating Pink Noise, hearing devices can be normalised and embraced. The creation of Pink Noise allows those with hearing devices to feel seen and allows the deaf customer to feel included when buying jewellery.
- Hi Jenni and Amelia, can you introduce yourself to Signature’s readers?
Jenni: Hi, my name is Jenni Ahtiainen, and I am the creator and designer of Deafmetal. I created the first Deafmetal hearing aid jewellery in 2018, in what one would call a ‘personal accident’. I am a jewellery designer, and a few days after I started wearing my own hearing aids, I tuned them up to look like something I wanted to wear, instead of looking like personality-less machines. I created a holster that fits around the aids, and I created earrings made of leather and silver chains that attached to it. Suddenly, my hearing aids felt more like mine. They looked like me, I looked like me.
I posted my Deafmetals online and it spread like wildfire. Within days, hearing associations started contacting me, hearing device manufacturers asked me to design jewellery collections for them, and people from all corners of the globe wanted to own their own Deafmetals.
And so, it all started creatively, organically, and in the hands of a hard of hearing fashion designer.
Amelia: Hi, my name is Amelia, and I am a 22 year old entrepreneur! I am the founder of the jewellery brand Bijoux de Mimi, which I launched when I was 18 during the midst of covid.
- What inspired you both to create ‘Pink noise’?
Jenni: I was approached by Amy from Living with Hearing Loss UK, and she inspired our collaboration! Amy is an incredibly kind and passionate person, and it seemed just right to support the work she does. We also share a common goal in making hearing loss more visible, more beautiful, and more widely accepted. Pink Noise was another way to do that.
Amelia: I was approached by my family friend Amy, who shopped both Bijoux and Deafmetal and suggested a collab between the two brands. We spoke a few times and decided a colourful collection (my speciality) would be amazing! Jenni and I worked together on a collection alongside Amy’s (LWHL) charity!
- How important is it for the deaf community to have a hearing product like this?
Jenni: I think having this collection designed by Bijoux de Mimi goes beyond just having the deaf community able to buy hearing aid jewellery created by a mainstream jewellery designer. It is also all about the thousands of people who shop from her store and follow her social media who have never had a friend with hearing loss. How can we hope to normalise something if it isn’t integrated throughout every part of our lives?
On top of the aesthetic side that we want to offer to our customers for hearing aids, the safety side of them is equally important. Hearing aids can be very expensive and even the thought of losing them is scary. Our jewellery keeps hearing aids safe with the jewellery-looking chains that actually works as safety chains.
Professionally thinking what I have to offer for the deaf community and for hearing devices is life, style, and safety.
Amelia: I have had a lot of really positive feedback from the deaf community that there’s very few accessible pieces of jewellery, especially within mainstream brands! Ultimately, this meant it was very important to create this product.
- Throughout creating the collection, what has been your favourite part?
Jenni: Customer feedback. It is the reason for the work I do. Every single time. Our hearing aid jewellery collections are growing by customer demand, and my head loves new challenges. When there’s a new customer with a new hearing aid yet not familiar to me, I often do not even charge for design nor the development part because it gives me, and other similar device users a new solution.
Amelia: I have really enjoyed learning more about the deaf community, and how important it is to be considerate to hidden disabilities! It was also amazing to be a part of a collection that was so rewarding.
- When creating Pinknoise, did you know how successful it would be?
Jenni: Sure, I had some feelings that the Pinknoise collection would be a success purely based on the power of our collaboration, and the amount of excitement it would create in a different market.
- Finally, do you have any future goals that you would like the Pinknoise collaboration to fulfil?
Jenni: To continue to grow its reach and make more people happy. These earrings keep surprising us by showing up on UK television shows and in publication, and I really love surprises. So, I would love to keep being surprised by this collection for a long time to come.
Amelia: As it was over a year ago, I think we have achieved everything we set out to! But I hope by our customers continuing to see the collection online, our deaf customers will remain feeling included, and our hearing customers will normalise any stigma towards the hearing loss community by seeing inclusive products as they shop!
Here at Signature, we would like to thank Jenni and Amelia for sharing more about this wonderful and all-inclusive collaboration. Alongside Jenni and Amelia, we would also like to thank Amy from Living with Hearing Loss who has also played an integral part in the creation of Pink Noise.
