Reading Glasses. Cheaters. Why use them with CraftOptics?

I can’t do anything without my contact lenses in. The few seconds it takes me to fumble for my glasses in the morning are the only moments I spend without corrected vision, and thank goodness. I have to wear glasses or contact lenses—for me, it isn’t even an option because I can’t function without them.

 

However, many of our CraftOptics users are more fortunate. For most of their lives, great eyesight wasn’t an issue at all. It was a given—until they hit their 40s.

 

This lucky group routinely asks us why it’s so important to put their reading correction into the frames of our product. After all, they only wear readers from the drug store, so what’s the big deal? Well, let’s talk about it!

 

- First of all, your reading correction is a prescription! While it’s true that reading glasses, or “cheaters” do a little bit of magnifying, what they really do is bend light so that whatever near image you’re looking at focuses on your retina, giving you a clear view of your reading, beading, etc. Just because you can buy a reading correction over the counter doesn’t mean that it isn’t an important part of your vision.

 

- Our telescopes are an enhancement to your corrected vision, not a substitution for it. Our scopes offer 2x magnification at 13 or 16” when put in front of corrected vision.

 

Think about reading a restaurant menu. If you don’t have your reading glasses on, you may still be able to read it if you hold it far away, like at an arm’s length. So what do you do? You toss on one of the multiple pairs of readers you have in your purse or pocket, and you can then read that menu from a comfortable distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Installing your reading correction ensures that you will be able to see and work from a comfortable distance.  If your reading correction is not installed in the frame, your working distance will be too far away for comfort. If you try to work from a closer distance the magnified image will be blurry, which can actually cause more strain and discomfort.

 

-Well, I already have a 2x in my readers, you say. Actually, what you have in your readers is NOT 2x. The +2.00 in your readers refers to diopters–a convex lens with a diopter power of 2. Magnification of 2x means just what it says, that what you are looking at is magnified by a power of two, which is ideal for comfortably working with small details.

 

Finally I’d like to emphasize that using cheaters is not, as the name would imply, cheating. Using a reading correction is necessary for our vision and comfort as our eyes…er… “grow up” which is why we encourage everyone who has a reading correction to use it in their CraftOptics glasses and scopes.

 

If you have any questions about your prescription, or about our scopes in general, please give us a call- we’re always happy to hear from you!

 

Sarah Beth Rebholz, CPOT

 

888 444 7728 (toll free)

888 444 6762 (fax)

www.craftoptics.com

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Hobbies and our health

Have you ever referred to your interests or passions as “just a hobby”? I certainly have. I mean, that’s all they are, right? I don’t make any money off of my poorly-sewn irreverent cross stitch, nor have I ever received a grade on my running. They’re just things I enjoy doing. They just make me happy, right?

Well…

As it turns out hobbies have been put to the test in scientific studies, and in addition to making us happy hobbies improve our physical, emotional, spiritual, and social health.

 

Physical Benefits:  In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hobbies pursued earlier in adulthood were found to be a protective factor against Alzheimer’s disease. Of the three broad categories of hobbies studied, passive (watching TV, etc.) intellectual (woodworking, crossword puzzles), and physical (walking, swimming), the intellectual activities seemed to be the most protective against Alzheimer’s, whereas the passive activities “may even be a risk factor”. Spending time on a favorite hobby also reduces blood pressure, feelings of fatigue, cortisol levels, and even body mass index.

Emotional and Spiritual Benefits: Hobbies reduce stress. I don’t have a hard time taking time out for myself, but I have so many friends who do, and for them having a hobby is a nice reason to “have some me time”- it’s me time for a reason!  For those of us who aren’t stressed (…anyone?…) avocations can provide us with eustress, a good stress which also may be a protective factor against depression. Along with reducing stress hobbies can give us a “deeper meaning” to our lives. When we devote our time to something we enjoy we escape stress and are therefore more able to connect to our still selves, encouraging clarity and focus.

Social Benefits: It’s easy to feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by coworkers, family members, and acquaintances. Even if we really like these people I think that there’s something really special about spending time with like-minded people. I spend a lot of time at my yoga studio, and am frequently overwhelmed by the sense of community there. I don’t necessarily know the names of the people next to me, but I do feel much attached to them all, and enjoy their company as individuals. Having hobbies presents us with opportunities to meet new, interesting people who already share an interest with us. What better way to meet new friends?

Hobbies may become more important to us at different times in our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling particularly stressed and needing our hobbies to keep us focused and happy, other times we may be in a situation where we have more time on our hands than we know what to do with and a hobby can help to break up the day. Of course sometimes we have more time than we’re used to having because of a medical condition, and at times those conditions can make pursuing our passions very difficult, but, because of all of the reasons we’ve been talking about, I would imagine that the hard times in life might be the times our hobbies can help us most.

I know that it’s easy to think of hobbies as just hobbies, but of course they’re so much more than that. Hobbies are great because we enjoy them and they make us who we are- passion is so important, but hobbies also give us a sense of identity and belonging, protect us from illness, and give us opportunities for pleasure, stress reduction, positive goal-setting, and relaxation… now where’s my hoop?

Sarah Beth Rebholz is an optometric technician at CraftOptics. She would love to talk with you about how CraftOptics telescopes can work with your prescription to help you see your hobby clearly and comfortably.

888-444-7728

What we learned while we were away…

Wow!  In the past few months, CraftOptics attended (that means I attended) VisionExpo & MJSA (with Rio Grande) in New York, SECO in Atlanta, an optical conference in Austin, the Art Glass & Bead show in Madison, the JCK in Las Vegas (with Rio Grande) and the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee.

There is nothing like meeting with customers face to face.  There is no better way to get information on your market and product than by hearing it directly from hundreds of customers, evaluators and opinion leaders at trade shows. Talk about market research!

What did we learn from all of this running around?  Some very important stuff:

• Many still think that our product is a clip-on telescope for their own glasses.  That is not the case.  The complete unit is a set of binocular telescopes that are attached to a specially designed titanium eyeglass frame.  
• There remains some confusion about how prescriptions work with the telescopes.
• Many still don’t realize that their prescriptions are to be installed in the titanium frames that are delivered with the telescopes, either by us or by a local optical professional.
• The telescopes work very well with bifocals/reading glasses
  

  Bifocals / Reading Rx in lower portion of frame. Distance correction above.

  installed in the eyeglass frame.

• Many want to use the telescopes as a substitute for their own personal correction and this is a no-no.  As we always say: CraftOptics Telescopes are an enhancement to your corrected vision, NOT a substitute for your corrected vision.  The telescopes and your prescription work together to create a terrific, custom optical device.
• Jewelry artists and bead artists are adapting quickly to CraftOptics Telescopes.
• These groups taught us more about the ergonomics of their work-spaces and their different preferred working distances:
• Jewelry artists working on jeweler’s benches tend to prefer the 13” working distance on their telescopes.
• Bead artists working on table tops generally prefer the 16” working distances.
• The ability of artists to look above the telescopes to easily see their tools, bench, customers, TV, etc. was a feature that turned out to be more important than expected.

As we travel around the country we will keep you posted on any new information we receive from our friends.  In the meantime, please call us at 888 444 7728 if you have any questions or feedback.  We want to hear from you! Your thoughts are important and I guarantee your voice will be heard!

Jeff

p.s.  We will be at Beadfest Philadelphia August 19-21, so if you are in the area, please stop by!

Why your working distance is so important.

I’m always telling people how important working distance is when they are considering the purchase of optical devices.   This sounds like a pretty dry subject, so why do I harp on it so much?

Well, the working distance of your device (whether it be reading glasses or magnifying telescopes) determines how your body will be positioned while doing your “work”.   If you are sitting in an awkward body position for extended periods of time because the working distance of your device is too short or long, you can get back, neck, shoulder and even eye fatigue.

Sometimes, just a slight adjustment of your body–moving your head back a few inches for example–can make all the difference in the world.  Sometimes, this can be accomplished by raising or lowering your chair, something many people forget to do.  And sometimes, these minor adjustments just don’t work.

As a result, too many people adapt their bodies to a device that is available (or to one that they have always used) rather than find a device that can provide comfortable and ergonomically correct positioning for the long haul. 

Here is a shot of someone sacrificing ergonomics and comfortable body positioning in order to adapt to a product:

And here’s a shot of that same person with a product adapting to her desired way of working–head up, back straight, comfortable:

The pictures say a thousand words, and now you know why I talk about working distance so often.

Please pay more attention to your body position when working.  No matter what kind of optical device you may be considering, make sure it can adapt to your preferred way of working and not the other way around.

If you take the time to get into a comfortable position and measure the distance from your eye to the object you are working on, you can use that information to find a device that encourages maintaining that position.

Your neck, back, shoulders and eyes will all thank you.

I don’t wear a prescription…but I do wear readers..

“I don’t wear glasses, but I do wear bifocals”

“No, I don’t wear bifocals, I just wear drug store glasses sometimes”

“I don’t need reading glasses, but I do wear cheaters once in a while”

Readers, reading glasses, reading add, cheaters, bifocals–they all do the same thing but with varying degrees of quality.  I know I have written about this before, but it is so important I wanted to post this, along with a helpful link below.

There is a lot of confusion about all those terms mentioned, but the reality is that they are all correcting a vision issue that hits us generally in our 40s.  It is during this time that, for most of us, text and other fine details are harder to see when they are held at a distance that used to be comfortable.  Reading glasses help shorten that reading distance back to that comfortable distance.

The bottom line is that you should have your eyes checked before purchasing drug store readers or any other pre-made reading glasses.  Why? Each eye may have a different correction, or you may have a slight astigmatism and not realize it.  If you use glasses that do not correct these issues, you will likely experience headaches or other discomfort.

For us, it is critical to make sure that we have our customers’ correct prescription.   A perfect prescription matched with our magnifying telescopes results in an ideal, comfortable, precision optical device that has the correct working distance.  If we match our magnifying telescopes to an incorrect prescription, uncorrected vision issues are magnified, the working distance will not be correct and discomfort can result.

A quick read on selecting reading glasses can be found here and I recommend you check it out:

http://vision.about.com/od/eyeglasses/qt/Reading_Glasses.htm

Here’s looking at you…

Jeff

Are Your Eyes Working Too Hard?

[Note: Rerun of an important post from 2010]
A few days ago, Margot Potter wrote about her visit to the eye doctor over the weekend (Impatient Crafter).  Lo and behold, she found out that not only did she have an astigmatism, but she also needed reading glasses!

I recently had a similar experience.  Over the past few months, I found myself much more fatigued and sometimes dizzy after staring at the computer for hours.  I finally scheduled an eye exam and found out pretty much the same thing–I had a slight astigmatism, a light distance prescription and a reading prescription.

When we get into our 40s, most of us need some type of reading prescription. The strength of that prescription can be small, but what a difference it makes. My point is that we often don’t connect headaches or eye fatigue with the possibility that we need some kind of vision correction.

Why?  Because we don’t want to admit we are older.  When we wear readers, guess what?  We think they make us look old.   Well, we ARE older, but only as a number.  I may need readers, but I still feel and act like I’m 25.  The reality is, nearly everyone needs some kind of reading prescription by the time they are 50.

Here’s my push:  It’s time to relieve our eyes of all this strain and get an eye exam now! It takes very little effort.  If you do need a new prescription, just think of the fun you will have checking out the new world of funky eye-wear. You’ll look hot AND will be able to read the menu next time you go out for dinner!  Just check out this guy:

“Wow! I could see every last detail, especially the thread path!”

It has been a bit busy here in CraftOptics land. I have been attending a number of trade shows in the jewelry, craft and optical markets, getting some very interesting feedback and learning more about new uses for CraftOptics Telescopes.

In previous blogs, I wrote about jewelry artists, needlepoint artists, cross-stitchers, and tattoo artists among many others. The latest markets to cross my path are bead artistry and fine electronics.

As one bead artist put it, “In small scale bead work, every fine detail is visible and I can work comfortably for hours”. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Anyone working with tiny objects needs to see what they are doing without eye strain.

Regarding fine electronics, the photo shows Sean doing something strange to his ipod. In order to see his work, he tried CraftOptics and sure enough, he was able to comfortably complete his project.

Off to more shows….If you are in New York attending the MJSA this weekend, please stop by the Rio Grande booth and say hi! I look forward to meeting you.

Jeff

Why Lugnut Wears Reading Glasses

I hang out with a crowd that includes 35 to 55 year olds. Most of us still often think and behave like 20 year olds (more often than I care to admit), but many of our parts, like our eyes, remind us that we’re not kids anymore. Why is our college party buddy Lugnut wearing those old guy reading glasses??

We may not look it, feel it or want to admit it, but our eyes are getting older and that affects our near vision. Don’t fight it. It really can’t be stopped but it CAN be corrected with glasses or contacts, so you should avoid any additional eyestrain and have your eyes checked sooner rather than later if they are feeling funky.

This is NOT Lugnut, but he IS wearing reading glasses!

So what is going on? Visionweb.com wrote a very nice explanation, which I have included below:

Aging Eyes
Aging eyes, medically known as presbyopia, is a condition in which the lens of the eye gradually loses its flexibility, making it harder to focus clearly on close objects. Distance vision is usually unaffected.

Presbyopia, which is named from the Greek words for “old eye,” is part of the normal aging process and is easily treated with eyeglasses or contact lenses. LASIK and other types of surgery cannot prevent or remedy this natural occurrence, which affects nearly everyone by age 50.

As the lens loses its elasticity, it becomes less capable of “bending” to properly focus light rays from different distances onto the retina. The more a lens can “bend,” the closer the eye can focus.

Presbyopia usually becomes apparent in your early- to mid-40s, but this lens “stiffening” is actually a gradual process that begins decades earlier, sometimes in adolescence. The visual effects caused by presbyopia may slowly worsen for several years, requiring new changes in your lens prescription, but will stabilize by age 65 or 70.

Symptoms
The first sign of presbyopia is often the need to hold reading material at arm’s length the see letters clearly. This is why some eye care professionals jokingly call it “long arm syndrome.” In addition to blurred vision when reading or doing other close-vision activities at a distance that was previously comfortable, symptoms can include:
• Needing brighter light to see clearly
• Eye strain, fatigue or discomfort
• A decreased ability to see in darkness, and/or increased sensitivity to glare
• Headaches, due to muscle tension or strain as the eye tries to adjust the lens shape

Prevention
Unless you can stop Father Time, you can’t prevent presbyopia, as it is an inevitable part of aging. It is not caused, nor can it be prevented by lifestyle, diet or visual habits. However, some people who do a lot of close visual work such as intensive reading or computer work may develop it earlier than others. You can help minimize related eyestrain by taking a brief break from close visual tasks every hour or so, and by using bright light when reading.

So what is the treatment? First, see your eye doctor to get your current prescription. He/She will help you decide which option will work best for you. There are countless eyeglass options (cheap drug store readers are options, but beware of poor lens quality) and even contact lenses that work for some people.

Me? I followed Lugnut’s lead (and Brad Pitt’s) and wear snazzy reading glasses. I like to think they make me look more mature. My friends know better…

See you later!

Jeff

Flexible Spending Accounts, Your Eyes, And CraftOptics

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to send out a reminder that those who have Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) with funds remaining may want to consider CraftOptics Telescopes as one way to close out those accounts.

As you know, FSAs are “use it or lose it”, meaning that the funds you put aside to cover various medical expenses in 2010 must be used by the end of the year. Any funds remaining will be lost.

Some FSAs have a grace period of one or two months after the end of the year in which purchases may be made from the 2010 account, but you need to check with your own plan to make sure.

If CraftOptics isn’t your thing right now, keep in mind that prescription eyeglasses, reading glasses, contact lenses and optometrist/optician expenses are all FSA eligible as well, so think about your eyes when you are looking to close out those accounts!

Tattoo You. And You. And You.

New photos from Paul!

I met Paul Stoll last summer at the JCK, the world’s largest jewelry trade show. Paul owns the oldest professional piercing studio in San Francisco called Body Manipulations, and was at the JCK purchasing body jewelry and piercing supplies. I spied him from a distance, chased him down and told him I wanted to speak with him about using magnification while he worked. Why did I want to speak with him?

Here’s why: Tattoo artists and dentists experience very similar ergonomic challenges. As my background is in the dental world, I know that both work with fine detail, both sit for long periods of time in similar (hunched) positions performing their craft, and both are plagued by the physical demands of their work–eyestrain, back pain, shoulder discomfort, etc. As I learned from dentists, properly designed magnification with comfortable working distances can alleviate many of those ergonomic challenges.

So we had a nice conversation and he “got it” instantly. The rest is history and today you can see the most ergonomically correct tattoo artist in these blog photos.

We all know someone–friends, neighbors, relatives, patients who work with fine detail in their crafts (cross-stitching, fly-tying, needlepoint, beading, jewelry-making). Many neglect their bodies and vision without even realizing it. Some even have to quit doing something they love because they can no longer see or are just too uncomfortable.

There is a solution, and we would love to help. Questions? Call me at 888 444 7728! I’d love to speak with you.

Jeff