Touching a talisman: what your fingers recognise

Run your thumb over La Moneta and you can feel the siren in relief. Turn it over and there’s the spiral. You can see these details in a photograph, but holding the piece tells you something else about them.

Getting to know an object by touch

Researchers call this haptic perception: exploring an object through touch and movement. In their review, Lederman and Klatzky distinguish between how we process an object’s shape and how we process properties of its material, such as texture. [1]

Think of what your hand does when you pick something up. You turn it, find the edge and run a finger along the surface. Those movements help you work out what you’re holding.

Designing something to hold

For jewellery, that brings us to some practical questions. Can you recognise a detail without looking at it? How does a smooth area feel next to a textured one? Is the edge comfortable between your fingers?

You need the piece in your hand to answer them. A design can look right on paper and feel quite different once it’s made.

A gesture of your own

You might touch a talisman before leaving home, while you’re waiting or when you want to remember something. What the gesture means will depend on you and the place it finds in your day.

The research helps explain how we recognise objects by touch. It hasn’t tested our talisman or shown that it has an effect on anxiety or the nervous system.

The relief is simply there for your fingers to find. Over time, you may come to know it well, and touching it may remind you why you chose the piece.