#ca5ey

Sure! Please note, though, that unless otherwise specified, these stores are based in the US. For those willing to shop from neurodivergent-owned businesses (as distinct from specifically autistic) there’s a little more choice. If you’re not in the US, you’re very likely going to have to pay extra in conversion and shipping costs (which is why I don’t use ND-owned as a basis for what content goes on this blog, as cool as it is to support fellow autistic and ND creators).

If you’re an autistic crafter and you’re not on this list, it’s either because I haven’t yet heard of you, I’ve committed the terrible crime of forgetting you or I’m unsure if you’re autistic (as per the brief). Please comment; I will add your name and details!

I’m pretty sure most folks have heard of Stimtastic by now (@stimtastic), but on the off chance someone hasn’t, I’ll mention it! I don’t believe anyone has had any negative experiences with their order; the linked Tumblr is packed full of happy customers saying great things. There’s everything from fidget toys to chewables! I love my braid pendant, scented vial necklace and - while I didn’t buy it from Stimtastic because I found it here in Australia - crocheted stress balls. @werevampiwolf makes their bead rings!

@caseydickdanger on their Storenvy store Ca5ey sells handmade slimes, fidget toys, weighted plush, squishies and unique fidget jewellery.

@wiresandchains at etsy store Chain Mail Slime sells handmade slimes and very unique chainmail fidgets and fidget jewellery.

If you’re after cute crocheted plush toys, @stimwithoutshame runs etsy store Spacecraft Crafts.

If you’re after bean bags or marble mazes, @asenseofselfshop runs etsy store A Sense of Self.

@spacerobotstudio creates and sells amazing fidget jewellery, communication necklaces and pride accessories on etsy store Spacerobot Studio.

@dragonadventurescrafting sells a fabulous range of handmade plushies and bean bags on her etsy store Dragon Adventures Crafting.

@dollboy runs etsy store Weird Faeles where you can find chewellery and witchy jewellery.

@transsliime sells handmade dough and many varieties of slime on their etsy store TransSlimes!

Autistic Rabbit on etsy makes and sells weighted blankets!

Sister Cat Blankets (etsy, based in France) makes weighted lap pads, blankets and stim toy cases. (She’s one of the mods of @autistickitten but I don’t know her personal.)

@elsinore-snores runs etsy store PangeaMea (based in Greece) where you can find noise-muffling beanies and headbands.

@bartonnbishophumandisastersatlaw runs etsy store Wilde Spoons and Stims where you can buy marble mazes and dinosaur egg fidget toys.

@stevenuniversequartz runs Spoonie Studio, where they sell slimes, floam, glitter jar necklaces, putty and chewellery.

@neurodelightful runs etsy store NeuroDelightful, where you can find fidget jewellery and glitter/shaker bottle pendant necklaces and earrings. Some even glow in the dark!

@piefanart stocks handmade plushies and very cool gear/steampunk-styled fidget necklaces on etsy store PieFanart.

@papercrafthugs sells fidget bracelets and custom amigurumi from UK-based etsy store Papercraft Hugs.

Fidget Club is online retailer with a fabulous range of stim toys. They’re also one of the few autistic and ND owned stockists of Tangles!

@punkrockstimming sells a range of beaded fidget bracelets and beaded fidget toys at xyr etsy store True Trans Soul Rebel.

@fabulousfidgets stocks hot/cold bags and marble mazes on etsy store Fabulous Fidgets.

@luna-stims runs Etsy store Lunar Ocean Studio where you can find her Teeny Bean fidget bean bags.

Fuzzwumpet is an Etsy store based in Canada that sells marble mazes, monster bean bags and spoonie bag self-care kits.

@dailyspheal runs Etsy store Waggles Studio, which stocks handmade fidgets made from woven loom bands.

@yuuriandviktorkatsuki runs UK-based Etsy store Chloe G Crafts, where she currently stocks handmade bead bracelets and soft crochet bracelets, and will stock fidgety things made from split rings.

Hey, anon! Tape measures sound great, don’t they? I used to keep a small one in my bag because I worked at a game store and the folks who played Warhammer never remembered to bring in their own (and sometimes the store one would get lost). If you’d rather stick with the tape measure, I’ve seen small ones in dollar shops, so you might find one that’s more portable if you’re able to look around. I even got a super tiny one in a Christmas cracker/bon bon one year, so they absolutely exist.

(For folks who celebrate Christmas, or just want to make their own bon bons because they’re fun, it strikes me that there’s a great many stim toys that would fit neatly into a cracker. Hedge balls, bouncy balls, makeup sponges, edamame poppers, kneadable erasers, mochi squishies, spinner rings, bead rings. Remind me to experiment with this at some point! I bet there’s lots of ways to make the outsides pretty stimmy, too, and it’d be easy to leave the snaps out for folks who dislike loud noises…)

You can also cut off a length of the tape from the case, just long enough that you can bend and crack the tape in your hands. Pull the tape out longer than the part you mean to cut off, cut, hold onto the cut edge so it doesn’t retreat inside the case, then stick a couple of layers of gaffer/duct tape over the cut edge, a couple of centimetres longer on both sides than the width of the tape, so when it slides back in the case the hanging duct tape stops the end from vanishing inside. The tape basically replaces the metal stopper you just cut off, meaning you can cut off more pieces another time. Or, just pull the tape as far out as it will go, cut the whole length off and then cut that section up into smaller pieces. For pockets, bags, stim toy kits, desk drawers, your stimming friends…

There’s lots of listings on eBay for those who can’t shop offline, but note that they toss in sewing measuring tapes (made from a flexible plastic that has no snap) and metal measuring tapes together under the same name. Don’t get the sewing ones!

My other suggestions are slide/snap clips and cracking squishies. You can find the hair clips in just about every department and dollar shop - I’ve even seen giant ones at Lincraft. They’re especially prominent in back-to-school sales, where stores sell multipacks in school uniform colours. They don’t snap quite as loudly as measuring tape, but they snap so well they’re recommended to use in DIY snapping squishies.

Check out eBay if you need to shop online - there’s all sorts of listings. This listing has 12 for $1 AUD with free shipping.

(There’s also these cool-looking multi-tool hair clips. The ones in this link cost $4.21 AUD, but there’s several links on eBay. Just in case you want a snapping stim toy that comes with other theoretical functions - said without knowing how well they work in practice, of course, but they look awesome.)

Cracking squishies can be bought or DIY’d. The DIY versions involve gluing a slide/snap clip or a piece of a measuring tape inside a sponge (or two layers of sponge) and then painting the outside to look like a cake or chocolate. (I sewed mine inside a flannelette bag, which you can see in the photo on this post.) There’s a video tutorial on this post, and while I don’t love the feel/texture of the paint, the squishy part is very easy to make. White craft PVA works just fine for gluing the sponges together, and the squishy feel combined with the snap sound is very pleasing!

If you’re looking to buy, I have a few links for cracking squishies under our cracking squishies tag. The cheapest listings I know about are this $6.07 AUD link for chocolate/biscuit squishies on Banggood or @caseydickdanger‘s chocolate cracking squishies on preorder for $3 USD. (Note: they’ve been listed as a preorder for a while now, so if you’re interested perhaps send an ask to find out what the status is. He only ships within the US.)

Silly Squishies has them for $7.94 USD; Aliexpress only sells them in lots for high prices (about $30 and up). I think your best source for these right now, for non-US folks, is Banggood, and I haven’t had any problems in ordering from them so far.

I hope this gives you some ideas, anon, and like always, suggestions are absolutely welcome. Good luck in finding or making a more portable cracking toy!

Several places, anon! It depends a little on where you’re located, but there options available both off and online with varying degrees of DIY needed.

@dragonadventurescrafting has made a range of different weighted plush in all sorts of styles (dogs, cats, Tsum-Tsum-like sea bunnies) and some are even scented! Her store is here (currently on break, however) and her tag is here, if you want to see the kinds of weighted toys she’s made that have been previously featured on this blog. Items ships worldwide from the US.

In the smaller, palm-size/pocket scale, @stimtastic sells the Weighted Sparkly Crab, $3.90 USD and the Weighted Sparkly Stingray, also $3.90 USD. The crab has been reviewed here.

Also in this scale, @caseydickdanger sells palm-sized Emoji plush (linked on this post here) for $20-$25 USD.

Wheat Heat Bags often come in plush animal cases. This post details where you can find them in Aussie department stores Big W and K-Mart, but you are likely able to find something similar in local department stores. These are really great because they don’t require any modification to turn them into a weighted plush toy and they’re full-size, huggable soft toys.

You can find a broad range of incredibly cute plush heat bag animals on Amazon by manufacturer Intelex, ranging from $16.50 to $22 USD each. There’s a frog, owls, a hippo, an elephant, a cow…

You also might like to check out Etsy sellers Sensory Stuffies and Southern Lites Gifts, both of which stock weighted plush animals. (Both ship from the US.)

If you’re more into DIY and thinking you wish to turn a regular soft toy into a weighted soft toy, or make a simple weighted plush from scratch, check out these tutorials we’ve reblogged: one | two | three | four.

If this doesn’t cover your region, anon, let me know and I’ll see if I can find sources closer to home. I think the best bet are the plush animal wheat heat bags. The Intelex ones are so gorgeous!

Anon, asking anyone to go through all those asks is so ridiculously unfair at this point, so don’t be sorry. I’ve said before that the only reason I even know what’s there (and what to search for) is because I wrote them!

You might like to check out these previous asks, one on small everyday items for stimming, one on subtle on-the-person stim toys, as they’re often smaller-leaning. This said, we haven’t quite approached small fidget toys from this perspective! The interesting thing is that I’ve been thinking about this myself this week, because I’ve found myself frequently editing my chapter with my mouse in the right hand and one of the two spinner rings I won in an @stimtastic giveaway held between two fingers in my left. Last night it culminated in using the mouse in my right and a fidget spinner in my left, stopping every so often because I need both hands to get the spinner spinning.

Most of these toys are going to require the use of one hand or a couple of fingers, so you may not be able to stim with them whilst typing with both hands at a keyboard as opposed to between typing or while editing/reading over your work/browsing the internet. If you’re typing on a smartphone, less of a problem! I’m very much a two-handed Tangle user, even with a Tangle Jr, so I’m going to keep this list to small, easily-manipulated fidget toys and jewellery on the basis that if I can’t use it with at most one hand, it’s likely useless to you.

Links, unless otherwise specified, lead to that item’s tag, because by now I often have several posts on where to find these.

- Edamame popper keychains. Squished between a thumb and pointer finger, and I can do it in my off (left, as I’m right-handed) hand.

- Hedge balls / hedge creatures / porcupine balls. I can even cup the smaller ones under my thumb in my off hand and still, somewhat clumsily, type with both hands.

- Spinner rings. (Check out Stimtastic’s selection or the many, albeit often expensive, available on Etsy.) Mine are slightly too big, which I knew was likely (I have weird fingers) but since I’m always pulling rings off anyway, I’m happier letting go of the idea that I was ever going to wear them and just rolling one between two fingers in my off hand. I love the infinity ring, because it spins great after a graphite treatment; I’m less impressed with the black ring and don’t recommend it at all.

- Bead lanyards and fidgets, especially if you turn them into a wearable lanyard (worn around your neck - see my tutorial for this here) so you don’t have to grasp them to fidget - just roll/push the beads with one hand.

- If you want something that will take the entirety of one hand and is a little tougher/more challenging, a marble maze can be used one-handed in your off hand if you rest it on your lap or desk and hold it down with your palm while pushing the marble with your fingers. I don’t have the coordination to find this easy, but sometimes you might want this!

- A marble loop offers the same marble-pushing stim in something smaller and easier to use with one hand.

- I’m constantly squeezing a makeup sponge in my off hand, because it’s a gentle stim toy with a nice texture. There’s one permanently in my desk drawer.

- Bead rings, held in your off hand or worn as a necklace.

- Mini bean bags. Mod Luna sells them if you can’t DIY your own!

- Kneadable erasers. I say this specifically because they’re cleaner than slime and smaller than most tins of putty, therefore easy to squish and manipulate in one hand.

- Squishies. Any but the very large ones will fit comfortably into one hand. I stuff my apple under my elbow and smush it against my ribs, meaning I can stim and type with both hands at once!

- Small objects - I’m thinking dice, worry stones, elastic bands, erasers, buttons, anything that can be pushed around in the palm and fingers! I’ve got a round metal tin in my desk drawer that contains a few of these sorts of mini fidgets:

[image description: a round, silver metal tin with blue metallic tape decorating the outside besidea smooth light brown quartz rock, a blue hedge ball, a mini pink blending sponge, a white Magic the Gathering Spindown D20 die, a small silver clasp ring threaded through a mottled ceramic blue bead, a blue glass counter and a mottled grey ceramic butterfly bead threaded through a loop of thin pink elastic.]

- Spinner necklaces. These can be easily manipulated with one hand, just like a bead ring necklace. There’s a couple of different kinds sold by @spacerobotstudio​ and @neurodelightful​.

- Fidget jewellery in general. Some of these are about moving the pendant, while some just offer different textures for touching. There’s a seriously wide variety of options! I’d look at Stimtastic’s snake twist necklace or planet necklace, and if you’re in the US, @caseydickdanger​‘s Storevny shop. If nothing there quite works for you, try taking to Etsy.

(Sadly, a lot of chewellery comes up in that search, but there’s some very cool maille pieces as well. Steel Lynx Chainmail has lots of lovely things, although some pieces may be a bit expensive for some stimmers.)

- Chain fidgets. The smaller ones can be easily turned over in one hand. If you’re worried about size, you can DIY these using pony beads tied together or straws, in addition to whatever split rings you feel like. (Daiso stores sell packets of rings in a range of different sizes.) I’ve made mine by wrapping lengths of felt around the rings, sewing down the felt and coating it in clear glue or glitter glue, but I haven’t yet had the chance to write this into a proper tutorial. I absolutely love stimming with it, though!

(I have no idea how good this one is, but I recently saw a cheap ebay listing: $2.65 AUD with free shipping from China.)

I’ll say that there’s probably a great many items that should be on this list that I’ve forgotten, anon, but I’m getting tired. I hope that gives you somewhere to begin, at any rate! Please comment away if there’s something that should be here and isn’t. Please also comment if you have any suggestions or stories about how you manage fidget/hand stimming and typing!

ETA: @euphonysms says,

I absolutely love the boinks fidgets. They can easily be manipulated in one hand, and I absolutely love the texture of the woven nylon. I’m not sure about internationally, but in the US there are lots of cheaper off brands available on Amazon and eBay that feel just as sturdy as the boinks brand, and come in packs.

It’s fine! You can always check my ask tag to see what’s been answered, but I understand if you’re not able to flip through five pages of asks (and tags are harder to access for mobile users, although I keep the tags pages linked in my user description to make it easier). You might like to look through this previous ask for ideas, as it discusses lanyard-clipable stim toys!In addition, if you’re in a classroom or desk office setting, some of the stationery items mentioned in this ask might be workable as stealth toys.

I’m not sure what kind of toy you might be after (chewable, fidget, etc) so I’ll list everything I know of that’s both on-the-person portable and subtle/stealth. Jewellery is like to be your best option. This is a little harder for people like me who prefer not to present in ways socially-coded as feminine, but, thankfully, most of these things don’t have strong associations with a binary gender.

Stimtastic really does have some of the best offerings for teenagers and adults after subtle/stealth stim jewellery.

Fidget jewellery that’s perfectly stealth: Roller Ball Bike Chain Bracelet | Extra Wide Bike Chain Bracelet | Spinner Rings (link to category, in various colours and designs) | Double Circle Earrings | Concentric Circles Necklace | Scented Vial Necklace (I have the cinnamon one and I love it - it’s small enough to be unobtrusive/merely decorative and it smells divine) | Snake Twist Necklace (a subtle Tangle alternative) | Mobius Flower Earrings (I took these off the earring backings and turned them into necklace pendants strung on a leather cord - gender neutral and nobody knows it’s stim jewellery) | Heavy Bike Chain Bracelet | Interlocking Bike Chain Bracelet | Light Bike Chain Bracelet | Wrist Coil Bracelets (like wearing a hair tie on your wrist - unremarkable) | Zipper Bracelets.

Fidget toys that can be attached to a bag or belt loop: Rolling Bead Lanyard | Large Bead Ring | Squishy Panda Charm | Jumbo Bead Ring.

(Note: how stealth these ones are depends somewhat on how eclectic you are in presentation. I can attach a bead ring or a squishy to a belt loop and have no one remark on it, but I’m the kind of person psychologists politely call “quirky”.)

Fidget toys that can fit into a pocket and hide in your hand/palm when someone comes over to your desk: Spiky Animal Fidget | Boinks Fidget | Mini Prickle/Hedge Balls.

(Note: I’ve found the animal prickle fidget toys in multipacks in the party sections of dollar shops and Toys R Us, $4-$4.50 AUD. I’ve also found the mini prickle balls in multipacks in the party sections of dollar shops and Big W, $3-$5 AUD.)

Chewables that are closer to stealth: Chewable Dulcimer Necklace | Chewable Trapezoid Necklace | Chewable Doughnut Necklace. (These are the smaller or plainer chewable pendants, and I assure you, I’ve seen folks wearing non-silicone versions of these. I’ve also walked around various cities, stores and markets wearing the Braid Pendant and nobody has once thought anything of it if they don’t see it in my mouth. Oversized jewellery, especially for femme-leaning folks, is pretty fashionable.)

DIYs: If you want to make your own roller bead lanyards, here’s the tutorial. If you want to make your own bead rings and make them even more stealth, here’s my tutorial on making bead ring necklaces. Nobody has ever treated these as anything more than funky necklaces, and I wear these everywhere, every day.

@caseydickdanger​, if you’re located in the US, makes some seriously unique handcrafted pieces. Most things have textures if you’re just after a necklace pendant to touch and handle. The really stimmy in-stock items include the Nautical Bottle Necklace, Mocha Tubez Bracelet and the Mermaid Sand Tubez Bracelet.

@spacerobotstudio has a phenomenal selection of funky, unique fidget necklaces: Spirit Level Necklace in Red | Spinner Pendant Necklace in Copper and Teal | Bronze Double-Sided Compass Necklace | Pink and Blue Saturn Spinner Necklace (oh, god, want) | Dots and Brown Spinner Pendant Necklace | Blue Glitter Globe Necklace.

Banggood or ebay also sell tiny squishies. Mochi squishies are perfect for holding and hiding in one’s hand (links to many individual ones in this post) but most of the cheap squishy assortments include smaller bun and cake squishies as well (and these have strap attachments for adding to bags).

(If you’re after more bag or lanyard-attachment fidget toys, here’s the ultimate post on where to find edamame poppers!)

Etsy has a wealth of spinner rings. There’s a wide variety running from affordable to bespoke.

You can also find the wrist coil/telephone cord bracelets in cheap multipacks in every dollar store - look in the hair accessory section. Also available on ebay! If you’re not the kind of person who wears bracelets, I’ve seen them as lanyard clips in many dollar shops (link to listing on Banggood).

Chubuddy and Amazon also have chewable telephone cord bracelets, if you want something unremarkable that’s chewable and a fidget.

Chewigem has several silicone raindrop pendant chewables that look just like oversized funky pendants.

In short, there’s a lot of options, especially jewellery-wise. However, most of these sellers are based in the US, so if you’re an international stimmer, be prepared for international shipping rates and conversion fees. While there are therapy-focused stim toy stores internationally, most of them don’t offer a lot in the way of subtlety!

[image description: a turquoise, grainy, gritty-looking pudding-like slime sitting on a black tabletop. First image shows the slime wadded up in a rough pile, the camera close enough to show the grain detain in the slime; second image shows the slime holding the indents left by several handprints’ worth of fingertips. Third image shows the slime flattened onto the table and holding impressions left by the full length of three fingers; fourth image shows the slime moulded into a ball and squished in a light-skinned hand.]

@caseydickdanger‘s Turquoise Sandy Slime!

$12 USD for a 5.5 oz / 156 gram container. Ships within the US. 

Description:

Sandy Slime is smooth, thick and heavy with a satisfying crunch. It is more than 50% sand, a little grainy and not at all sticky. It’s stretchy and fun, and the sand stays off your hands and in the slime!

[image description: a clear glass filled with clear orbeez or water beads - small balls that look like plastic or glass marbles made from a water-absorbing polymer. The glass sits against a black background.]

If US folks are after clear orbeez/water beads/water marbles, @caseydickdanger is now stocking them!

For $5 USD, you can get either a 5.5 oz container of hydrated water beads or a 2 oz container of dehydrated water beads. (Just put them in a bowl of water for a few hours and they’ll become full and plump like the above image.)

These are good for marimo tanks, DIY phone cases and cooler bags/pouches, and just general stimming.