About a year and a half ago I got a really unusual request for a custom piece of jewelry:

Make a bracelet from a chunk of driftwood.  

This was so different and cool...I jumped at the chance, as I live for a ridiculously difficult challenge.  

There was one problem...it was literally just a chunk of wood.  An ugly, awkwardly shaped hunk of dirty driftwood.  What in the world was I going to do with it???  

Like I said, I love a challenge so I jumped into the project headfirst.  Step one: find a  wood carver.  I think in the course of nine months I had at least a dozen unreturned phone calls and as many as twenty unanswered emails.  First of all, how rude are people? I mean seriously!  Secondly, this was proving to be more than hard.  I traveled all over this country for an entire year with a chunk of driftwood wrapped in tissue paper in my suitcase...you know....just in case I met a wood carver somewhere along the way.  Yes.  That is incredibly weird.  But I was determined, and fortunately, this client was willing to wait.

And then one day, feeling defeated and really annoyed with Woody--after traveling together for a year, he had been given a name. He had become my own version of Wilson from Castaway--I was whining to my sister about this project and how nobody wanted to carve wooden "stones" for me.  And she says to me, "I know someone that might do it.  I go to church with this guy that is a wood carver, and he is really talented and creative. I could ask him if you want."

Huh? What!?  She has known this guy all along and it had never come up in a whole year?!?!?  I was about to lose it...

Well, turns out he is really creative and beyond talented and very nice.  After a quick conversation and a couple of emails, he had carved the perfect "stones" for my wood meets gemstone bracelet vision.  It was that easy.  I wanted to seriously hurt somebody.  But I didn't!  I just made a pretty bracelet instead.

The final product...

Driftwood "stones" were waxed and polished and then draped in a mix of chains, labradorite, citrine and quartz.  A tiny little magnetic clasp makes for easy on and off.  The bonus of working with wood? It was super lightweight in spite of the number of chains and stones I mixed into the piece.  

Lesson learned?  Never give up...

and your sisters are always there to help.  

{Love ya, Jones!}

xo...

ki

A special thanks to John Diehl at Keowee Karvings for entertaining an incredibly unorthadox request!   Your unmatched skill level, time and patience is more than appreciated!!!