- Bedazzler
The Bedazzler is a
home appliance which is used to fastenrhinestone s, studs and patches to material, clothes and accessories.History
The Bedazzler first appeared in the 1970s as a
direct marketing product. It was developed byNSI Innovations in theUnited States . It is promoted through Televisioninfomercials , most recently byTana Goertz of "The Apprentice" fame.Description
The Bedazzler looks like a giant plastic stapler whose base contains a circular wheel called a Tiffany setting, instead of a square setting ordinarily seen on a desktop Swingline stapler. Using different plastic applicators, or "plungers," a user can insert studs or rhinestones of different sizes, slide the desired fabric between the arm and the base and press like stapling a piece of paper. [Roja, Genevieva. [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.06.01/slices-0136.html Be Dazzled] , Metro Active, September 6, 2001]
Reception
The Bedazzler was voted #100 in the Top 100 Gadgets of all time (Mobile PC Magazine March 2005 edition). Craft magazine - 'CNA Magazine' featured the Bedazzler on its cover in the January 2001 edition. [http://www.clnonline.com/archives/clnarchives/2001/cln021901.html Cover - Volume V, No. 4] , "Creative Leisure News", February 19, 2001]
The Bedazzler has appeared in pop culture. In Episode 15 of Season 3 of NBC's The Apprentice a Bedazzler is the focus of the show. At
Rosie O'Donnell 's magazine launch party (Rosie McCall), the guests were given gift bags that included the Bedazzler Radio personalityDanny Bonaduce regularly bedazzles pieces of his wardrobe, which the other members of "The Adam Carolla Show " often mock him for. It is also a recurring element in The Game PlanLike any fashion item, the popularity of the device and its output has waxed and waned over time. Because of its low cost and the type of glitzy clothes and accessories that can be created using a bedazzler, it is often associated with
kitsch andretro fashion.A commentator in
Entertainment Weekly magazine described the Bedazzler as: "The cheap-ass rhinestone-studding tool favored by art teachers and over-excitablesoccer mom s everywhere, the biggest piece of crap sold on late-night TV since the ThighMaster, the reason women own shirts with glittery kitty-cats on them." Yet, people continue to buy them. [Pastorek, Whitney. [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1055682_3%7C%7C603450%7C0_0_,00.html Case Dismissed] , "Entertainment Weekly", April 29, 2005]Robert Trautmann-(AKA The Sausage King of Chicago and/or The Rhinestone Cowboy of Jersey) has always been a huge fan of the bedazzler. It is thought by some that his private collection of jackets may reach well up into the hundreds. By all estimates he may easily have Bedazzelled over 1,000,000 Rhinestones.
See also
*
*I Love 1974 Volume II References
External links
* [http://mybedazzler.com/ Official website]
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