Saturday 16 November 2013

Bracelets from Gullberi and Glampi

Today I want to tell you about a recent project, making bracelets for mother and daughter from tail hair of their stunning Icelandic horses, Gullberi and Glampi who live in Scotland.



You can see here how lovely these two are. The hair of both horses was beautiful, with a range of colours. The bracelets were made using both sets in the weave. That is eight warps each in a sixteen warp braid.











Here the clasps are different to the ones I've used previously. The ends are sterling silver and the clasps, Tibetan silver.
Lighter hair does seem to be a little more thin than darker hair and so I used seven hairs per warp of light hair compared to five of dark in each warp. Working out just how many to have in each group or warp comes with experience, but don't worry, it is actually quite hard to tell any difference. 

Some people are quite surprised when they feel the texture of the bracelet. A friend recently commented she thought that something like nylon was added. It wasn't at all. It is all 100% horse hair. It holds together very well when used in Kumihimo creating a lasting, durable piece of jewellery to wear.





Friday 8 November 2013

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Thursday 7 November 2013

Horses Past and Present: a new bracelet

It is that time of year again when I make something for my daughter to wear. This year has been bitter sweet, with our lovely, loyal Fell pony Drifter being put to sleep on the one hand. On the other the arrival of Charlie, a young horse with such a lot to learn.

This latest project started as an experiment with the intention of producing three strands, two from one horse and one from the other. One strand has four Tiger's Eye beads threaded onto it. One for each year of Charlie's life. The strands are all joined together and are loosely entwined.

Drifter greeting a llama and Charlie saying hello to a cow