When Jewelry Glows: The Art and Science of Wearable Light

What if your necklace pulsed with your heartbeat? What if your ring glowed a different color depending on who was nearby? At Maker Faire Bay Area, Charlyn Gonda invited us to imagine and build.

Charlyn Gonda occupies a rare intersection: she is simultaneously a maker, a coder, and a jewelry artist. Her talk at last year’s Maker Faire Bay Area wove all three identities together into a presentation as layered and luminous as her creations themselves. The central argument was simple and compelling, LEDs don’t belong only in circuits or screens. They belong on your body.

From Delicate Rings to Interactive Bags

Gonda’s own portfolio spans a remarkable range. There are pendants and delicate rings in which a single NeoPixel nestles beneath a translucent resin gem, cycling through colors so slowly you almost think you’re imagining it. And then there are her interactive bags structured totes with addressable LED strips sewn into the lining, programmed to respond to a tap or a sound cue.

She didn’t stop at her own work. Gonda generously showcased pieces from other makers in the community, a proximity-sensing brooch that lights up when two wearers stand near each other, a bracelet that changes color based on UV exposure, and a collar that pulses in response to the wearer’s breathing. Each example reinforced her thesis: light is a design material with the same expressive range as metal, fabric, or stone.

Sci-fi as a Design Language

Throughout the talk, Gonda returned again and again to science fiction as her primary creative reference, not the dystopian chrome-and-gunmetal aesthetic of classic cyberpunk but the softer, more organic luminescence of contemporary sci-fi. Think the bioluminescent forests of Pandora or the quietly glowing garments in recent Afrofuturist visual culture. Light, in these references, is never cold or mechanical. It’s warm, alive, and relational.

Watch the full video here.