Last summer, I went a little friendship bracelet crazy – staying up late at night to go through hundreds of pages on Etsy to find my favorites. This summer, I’ve become obsessed with these nautical flag bracelets from Christy Curcuru of Growing Jewelry. I spotted the bracelets a few weeks ago, when one of my favorite Austin ladies, Gabriella Ainslie, of Tendenza Consulting, was in town. A group of us had settled into lunch at EAT. I’m one of those people who will (literally) chase after someone to ask them where they got a particular dress, bag or shoes so the fact that Gabriella was seated at the other of the table and having a conversation didn’t stop me from interrupting lunch to ask about her bracelets. Jewelry designer Christy Curcuru crafts her nautical flag inspired bracelets from perler beads, aluminum and hemp cord. (My favorite thing to do is ask people to look closely at the beads and see if they remind them of childhood. Do they look familiar to you?)
Perler beads are those same beads that you can hot iron so that they melt together and make a pot holder or ornament. I spent hours playing with these when I was a kid. You can buy the bracelets here. And Christy is always open to making them in custom colorways you can get in touch with her here or here. -Amy
