APPARATUS USED WITH A STUD EARRING

Abstract

An apparatus used with a stud earring is presented. The apparatus has an elongate body having an upper end, a lower end, a front surface, and a back surface. The apparatus further has an attachment means having a front side and a back side. The attachment means is generally located at said upper end of the elongate body and the front side of the attachment means is removably coupled to a back end of the stud earring by a securing means. The securing means is removably coupled to the back side of the attachment means of the elongate body. The elongated body may have a design which can be easily removed and replaced. Further it may also or alternatively have coupling coupled to the lower end of the elongated body.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to earrings. More particularly, it relates to earring accessories.

BACKGROUND

Most earrings, broaches, necklaces, and other such ornaments are crafted using precious metals or other such materials that facilitate generation of luster. In addition, stratagems are employed at such ornaments to heighten visual attractiveness and decorativeness as an ornament, surfaces thereof being polished and also being imparted with complex shape or the like to constitute jewelry members and produce sensations of luster and/or brilliance in the viewer. As one stratagem to further heighten visual attractiveness and decorativeness of a jewelry member in an ornament, the jewelry member of the ornament is such that precious metals or other such materials that facilitate generation of luster are employed in combination with gemstone(s). Known among the gemstones that may be employed here are those which, regardless of whether they are natural materials or artificial materials, have surfaces that are typically well-polished, and which are therefore capable of producing strong sensations of luster and/or brilliance in viewers and which, moreover, depending on material, may have been cut in complex fashion to constitute multifaceted surfaces, as a result of which it is not only the case that light is reflected from the surface thereof but also that light which has entered the interior thereof is refracted in complex fashion and undergoes diffuse reflection to produce the attribute of fire in complex fashion. As a result of adoption of such stratagems, by making it possible to produce in the viewer not only the superficial sensations of brilliance and/or luster but also the more profound sensation of fire and so forth, it is possible to employ these to generate the visual attractiveness and decorativeness that are desirable in ornaments.

However, the foregoing ornaments have conventionally had structures in which the jewelry member is fixed to the ornament. These have therefore been lacking in variation when viewed from the same location, the direction of the light reflected thereto from the jewelry member of the ornament tending not to change unless the angle at which light is incident on the jewelry member of the ornament changes, or the person wearing the ornament moves, or the person viewing the ornament alters his or her position. For this reason, in situations where such movement or variation has been lacking, while the viewer of the ornament may have been able to sense the luster and/or brilliance of the ornament, there has been inadequate ability to adequately sense the fire thereof, and it has not always been the case that the beauty thereof was able to be brought forth to the desired agree and made manifest. It has been hard to avoid situations in which visual attractiveness and decorativeness as an ornament have been impaired rather than enhanced, resulting in concern that the perceived value thereof may have been reduced.

Various proposals have therefore been made in attempts to achieve a structure in which the jewelry member of the ornament is made partially movable with the intention of causing the visual attractiveness and decorativeness of the ornament to be adequately manifested and the value thereof to be thoroughly brought forth.

For example, in the context of a personal accessory, an oscillating ornament has been proposed in which at least a link at one side of a pendent ring attached to an oscillating body having a jewelry member or a suspended loop supported by a human body by way of a plurality of legs, chains, or other such support means is made to have rectangular cross-sectional shape, and a part in linked contact with the paired mate of this rectangular portion is made to have a shape that is sharpened so as to be of convex arcuate cross-sectional shape (see Patent Reference No. 1). This oscillating personal accessory is intended to be such that by causing the load of the jewelry member to be supported by a link comprising a rectangular cross-sectional shape and a convex arcuate cross-sectional shape, any slight movement of the body, slight breeze, or the like is supposed to cause the jewelry member to pivot, as a result of which the brilliance of the jewelry member is supposed to be manifested more than was the case conventionally.

However, with the aforementioned proposed personal accessory, it is difficult to achieve precision high enough to cause the contact region shape at the link to engage in line contact, and so what is substantially surface contact occurs instead. For this reason, contact resistance has in practice been high, and it cannot be said that this has been sufficient for obtaining adequately repeatable swinging of the jewelry member. For this reason, because the visually perceptible fire has been of low frequency and has been weak, and the swinging dies down almost immediately, it still cannot be said that this has been sufficient to permit the visual attractiveness and decorativeness inherent in the jewelry member to be brought forth to the desired agree and made manifest.

As another mechanism therefor, in the context of a personal accessory, an oscillating personal accessory has been proposed in which a jewelry member is suspended by a retaining fixture after the fashion of gymnastic rings from two points to the left and right diagonally above the center of the ornamental item, the body of the ornamental item being arranged so as to be inclined slightly diagonally upward, with the expectation that this will facilitate oscillation of the jewelry member.

However, because this oscillating personal accessory has a structure in which a jewelry member is supported as a result of being suspended from two points to the left and right diagonally thereabove, oscillation thereof is restricted to the direction of rotation about the axis formed by where it is held in place from the left and right. This being the case, the directions in which oscillation can be imparted thereto are limited, and as rotation to the left and right is difficult, being unable to engage in rotation to the left and right, swinging in that direction is small and is not sustained.

Moreover, while fire generated by a jewelry member produced as a result of minute swinging can be visually perceived when the person who is visually perceiving the jewelry member is directly facing the jewelry member, difficulty occurs in attempting to visually perceive the luster, brilliance, and fire generated by the jewelry member when the person who is visually perceiving the jewelry member does not directly face the jewelry member but is viewing it from the side or from a diagonal direction, and so its visual attractiveness and decorativeness as oscillating personal accessory have not been adequately satisfactory. For example, where the personal accessory is employed near the ear as is the case with an earring or stud earring, because the swinging member would be located to the side of the face, a person located in front of the wearer would likely find it difficult to directly face the jewelry member, and so one could not easily expect to be able to adequately catch sight of the fire.

As described above, with the ornaments having movable jewelry members that have been proposed to date, because oscillations are easily interrupted, because there is directionality to the directions in which swinging can occur, and because there is limited tendency to oscillate, the structure has not been such as to permit the luster, brilliance, and fire generated from the movable jewelry member to be visually perceived adequately and for a long time from a wide variety of directions in stable fashion, and from the standpoint of a structure permitting the desired visual attractiveness of the ornament to be manifested regardless of which direction it is viewed from, these have still not provided adequate satisfaction. Further improvement is therefore to be desired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is an illustrated front view of an exemplary apparatus used with a stud earring.

FIG. 1B is an illustrated back view of the exemplary apparatus used with a stud earring of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a first illustrated example of the apparatus used with a stud earring of FIG. 1 with design.

FIG. 3 is an illustrated view of the apparatus used with a stud earring with an attachment means.

FIG. 4 is an example of the apparatus used with a stud earring with design of FIG. 2 being worn.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The phrases “in one embodiment,” “in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. Such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. Such terms do not generally signify a closed list.

“Above,” “adhesive,” “affixing,” “any,” “around,” “both,” “bottom,” “by,” “comprising,” “consistent,” “customized,” “enclosing,” “friction,” “in,” “labeled,” “lower,” “magnetic,” “marked,” “new,” “nominal,” “not,” “of,” “other,” “outside,” “outwardly,” “particular,” “permanently,” “preventing,” “raised,” “respectively,” “reversibly,” “round,” “square,” “substantial,” “supporting,” “surrounded,” “surrounding,” “threaded,” “to,” “top,” “using,” “wherein,” “with,” or other such descriptors herein are used in their normal yes-or-no sense, not as terms of degree, unless context dictates otherwise.

Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. While embodiments are described in connection with the drawings and related descriptions, there is no intent to limit the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents. In alternate embodiments, additional devices, or combinations of illustrated devices, may be added to, or combined, without limiting the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, an exemplary earring 1 is shown. The earring 1 is useful for providing a mechanism such that earring designs and styles can hi-lite the aesthetic beauty of a woman or man wearing the earring 1.

The earring 1 has a stud earring 110. The stud earring 110 can be any type of stud earring 110 in which the apparatus 100 can attach to. The stud earring 110 can be made of gold, silver, any other metal, plastic or wood product. The stud earring 110 is preferably circular but may have any shape that a user desire.

In FIG. 1B, the stud earring 110 has a stud post 111. The stud post 111 is useful in securing the stud earring 110 thru a piercing in an ear or other portion of a body. The stud post 111 is pushed thru the piercing in the ear and is secured using a locking mechanism, such as the stud lock 112 shown in FIG. 1B.

A securing means such as the stud post 111 of the stud earring 110 is generally found on the backside 160 of the earring 110. This is generally for aesthetic purposes so to hide the stud post 111 from being easily seen and to promote the artwork of the earring 1.

The earring 1 further has an apparatus 100. The apparatus 100 is useful for providing a mechanism such that earring designs and styles can be changed out quickly and easily. Thus, a different, up to date look is easily obtainable by young and old alike.

The apparatus 100 has an elongated body 120. The elongated body 120 has an upper end 190, a lower end 140, a front surface 150 and a back side 160. The elongated body 120 may be oblong, oval, round, etc. The attachment means 310 may be integral or otherwise with the elongated body 120.

The apparatus 100 has an attachment means 310 of FIG. 3. The attachment means 310 is located on substantially the upper end 190 of the elongated body 120 of the apparatus 100. The attachment means 310 is preferably be integral with or may be coupled to the upper end 190 of the elongated body 120.

The upper end 190 of the elongated body 120 of the apparatus is removably coupled to the stud earring 110 on the back end 160. The coupling of the apparatus 100 to the stud earring 110 on the back end 160 allows for the apparatus to use the stud post 111 as a securing means and to be hidden from sight of others.

The securing means is shown in FIG. 1B as the stud post 111 but may be any other type of attachment means that one may find on earrings. The securing means also has a locking means for securing the stud earring 110 with the apparatus 100 to the ear of a user and prevent the lose of the earring 1.

The elongated body 120 may have one or more couplings 210. The couplings 210 may be for aesthetic purposes or may be useful for other means. The one or more couplings 210 are coupled to the elongated body 120 at the lower end 140 of the elongated body 120. Thus, the couplings 210 may dangle or be more exposed for others to view. If there is more than one coupling 210, the couplings 210 may be the same or may be different. The couplings 210 could be gold chain, trinkets, charms, etc.

Moving now to FIG. 2, a earring 1 with a design is show. The apparatus 100 of FIG. 1 has an attachment means 111 at the upper end 190 that secures it to the stud earring 110.

The elongated body 120 of the apparatus 100 has a design 220. The design 220 is clearly visible on the front surface 150 of the elongated body 120 of the apparatus. The design 220 can be any design or any type of item that a user wishes. The design 220 could be a sports team logo, a cross.

Moving now to FIG. 3, an earring 3 is shown which is coupled to an attachment means 310. The apparatus 100 has the attachment means 310 and an elongated body 320. The elongated body 320 may be round, oval, oblong, etc.

The elongated body 320 of the apparatus 100 has an upper end 322 and a lower end 324. The upper end 322 of the elongated body 320 is coupled to the attachment means 310. The attachment means 310 may be integral to the upper end of the elongated body 320 or may be coupled by other means.

The attachment means 310 has a front side 330 and a backside 340. The attachment means 310 may be suitable for a necklace 350, chain or other method or means to secure the apparatus 100 to a user. The elongated body 320 may contain a design 220 or one or more coupling 210. The one or more couplings 210 could be securely attached to the lower end 324 of the elongated body 320.

If a necklace 350 or chain, the necklace 350 or chain may have a clasp 352 to secure the necklace 350 or chain after the necklace 350 or chain as be coupled to the attachment means 310.

Now moving to FIG. 4, an example of the earring 1 is shown being worn on an ear 402. The ear 402 has an earlobe 404 and a lower earlobe 404. The lower earlobe 404 is generally where people wear earring 1 on their ear 402, but may be located in different locations on the ear 402 or other portions of their body.

The apparatus 100 has an elongated body 120, the elongated body has an upper end 190. The upper end 190 of the elongated body 120 of the apparatus 100 is secured by the attachment means 111 of the stud earring 110. The stud earring is then secured to the ear 402 thru a piercing in the ear 402 and secured by the stud lock 112 of FIG. 1B.

The elongated body 120 of the apparatus 100 has a design 220. The design 220 of the elongated body 120 of the apparatus 100 is shown as a sports team logo but may be easily changed out to a cross, or other designs quickly and easily.

In the numbered clauses below, specific combinations of aspects and embodiments are articulated in a shorthand form such that (1) according to respective embodiments, for each instance in which a “component” or other such identifiers appear to be introduced (with “a” or “an,” e.g.) more than once in a given chain of clauses, such designations may either identify the same entity or distinct entities; and (2) what might be called “dependent” clauses below may or may not incorporate, in respective embodiments, the features of “independent” clauses to which they refer or other features described above.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specific exemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies are representative of more general processes and/or devices and/or technologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filed herewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.

The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features of other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus used with a stud earring, said apparatus comprising:

an elongate body having an upper end, a lower end, a front surface, and a back surface;

an attachment means having a front side and a back side, said attachment means located at said upper end of said elongate body and wherein said front side of said attachment means is coupled to a back end of said stud earring;

a securing means, said securing means coupled to said back side of said attachment means of said elongate body.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said elongate body is oval in shape.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said attachment means is integral to said upper end of said elongate body.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said attachment means is coupled to said upper end of said elongate body.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said elongate body further comprises at least one coupling.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said at least one coupling comprises a gold chain.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said elongate body includes a design.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said design is located on said front surface of said elongate body.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said design is a logo of a sports team.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said design is a cross.