Men wear jewelry too

by LeAnn Weih 

It started with these two bracelts that I made for myself. Then I made another for my daughter. Peter remarked, "you know, men wear jewelry too."  I should not have been terribly surprised by this revelation. A couple of years ago my 7 year old nephew went into a bit of a pout when I made his sister a necklace. We ended up selecting a bronze dragonfly and a simple leather cord for him. Or there were the men who would come by my table at art market and look at metal pieces and then be disappointed that I didn't have cords that were a good length for men.

So this started me thinking maybe I should make Peter a bracelet or two. So I challenged myself to use the basic design of these two bracelets to come up with the masculine counter parts. Bronze components seemed an obvious choice but most of the pieces I make are decidedly on the feminine side.

So I made up some new styles of components that were a bit more rustic and had a somewhat heavier feel to them. I used much heavier leather than in my bracelets. All of the beads I have are more feminine than I was looking for in men's jewelry. So instead I made up coils of heavy 16 gauge bronze wire and used them in place of beads.

Your turn!

Do you make men's jewelry?

What do you look for in the design of men's jewelry?