Bedazzler

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The Bedazzler is a home appliance which is used to fasten rhinestones, studs and patches to material, clothes and accessories.

1 History
2 Description
3 Reception
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The Bedazzler first appeared in the 1970s as a direct marketing product. It was developed by NSI Innovations in the United States. It is promoted through Television infomercials, most recently by Tana Goertz of "The Apprentice" fame.

[edit] 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.^[1]

[edit] 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.^[2]

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^[2] Radio personality Danny 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 Plan

Like 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 and retro fashion.

A commentator in Entertainment Weekly magazine described the Bedazzler as: "The cheap-ass rhinestone-studding tool favored by art teachers and over-excitable soccer moms 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.^[3]