Shisha bracelets make RFID chic

Traditional embroidery method a creative way to make RFID nametags

There are a variety of meetings, projects and games that use RFID tags to identify individual people. While these can of course take the form of ordinary badges or nametags with a small RFID chip incorporated into them, at least one person has found a way to make them more chic and attractive.

“Shisha” means glass in Persian, but the word is also used to refer to a type of embroidery where mirrors or small pieces of glass are stitched onto brightly-coloured fabrics. Shisha-embroidered clothing, wall hangings and curtains are quite popular on the Indian subcontinent as well as elsewhere in the world.

Becky Stern has used this shisha embroidery method to make personalized wristbands using RFID tags, which she distributes during a business workshop that she mediates: “The tag is visible the same way the mirror would be in traditional shisha,” she notes in a blog post, “and I think the copper coil looks quite attractive.” Becky is founder of Stern Lab and Associate Editor of craftzine.com, a website devoted to crafting and creative art projects.