A couple months ago my friend Jenn asked if I would help her make custom order bracelets for her husband’s birthday. I immediately said yes and we talked about the materials and colours she wanted to incorporate.  I looked through my existing stones and found many options for her that could work. I also took a small road trip out to Jacob’s Trading Gem & Mineral show to pick up a few extra options just in case.

We had a meeting to go over the materials, she selected the stones she wanted to use and planned out each piece. She picked out stones, colours, shapes, and textures she felt sure her husband (Ryan) would like. She called what she made a mix of “able to pass off as professional rockstar” and “hippy chic”. We then got together another evening after our day jobs and Jenn set to work.

I sat across from her and watched her work, gave tidbits of suggestions on design where needed and instruction on how to assemble and close off the bracelets when the time came, it wasn’t a hard job and it was a lot of fun to play a small part in the process of gifting between two people I love dearly. One very special element was the addition of a Canadian dime to one of the bracelets.  The story behind this is that when Jenn’s gradnfather was stationed in England during the war he had a bracelet made for his wife with a British 10 pence piece in it. Jenn wore that bracelet on her wedding day. She wanted to create a bracelet for Ryan with the Canadian 10 cent piece to emulate that gift. I absolutely LOVE working on custom orders that incorporate re-purposed items and the story behind this was is so touching. I’m honoured I played a small role in making it happen.

In the end Jenn made a total of 5 bracelets for Ryan which she gifted to him on his birthday. You can see the other 4 bracelets pictured below. Thank you Jenn for asking me to help with this lovely project. It means a lot to me and I really enjoyed watching your creative process unfold!