Handmade beaded jewelry by Brap and Manda

Stretchy...Durable...Unique...

We currently don't have an online outlet for braplet sales other than custom designs, but they are always available by special order (Email us for arrangements/quotes/ideas, whatever. :) We are good at making smiles and many, many braplets have moved through this world as gifts, each one individually imagined as a unique item.

Some background....

I (Brap) started beading in 2000 while staying with former relatives in Texas. It was a very strange thing for me to start doing, but being used to doing strange things, the results are now decidedly history still in the making. Some sweet girls I worked with in Stephenville (ugh) somehow gave me the idea to string beads. One trip to Wal-Mart later (don't shop there...I had no choice), I had some crappy little beads and some crappy stuff to string them...but everyone starts somewhere. :) That was the one and only time I bought any beads from a Wal_mart.

Quickly, what was an impulse became An Idea- and a very unique one at that. I kept getting this way of weaving beads in my head. The third time these ideas surfaced, I went and found some proper stretchy material and dug in. A couple years of this led me to Big Sur, where I've been selling my pretties ever since at Local Color, by The River Inn. Thanks to this wonderful location and several thousand braplets later, people all over this fine blue planet have been decorated and are adorned even today with my 'little buddies'. :)

It's a bit hard to get the idea of a braplet from a picture- it's a tactile thing, really. Properly fitted, there's no other bracelet quite like them. Very unique and truly comfortable, they are real 'comment-grabbers'. And friend-makers. :) I do now have some videos (links at the bottom of this page) that help to understand not only what a braplet is, but how to make them.

By popular demand (and I do mean demand), I started branching out into necklaces and anklets, as well as different kinds of bracelets. I saved the earrings for Manda, though, who showed up in my life around Halloween of 2005. Together, quite a team of jewelry-making folks we be. :)

You can get a VERY limited view of what we do by visiting this gallery of braplets. The gallery is a collection of past designs and it need be stressed that I do not repeat patterns. If you see something you like, feel free to request something similar and if I have the proper beads, I'll consider the request. Do not treat it like a catalog, though. Please. Thank you. :)

New! Learn to make your own braplets!

How to Make a Basic Braplet (added 12/07/09)

How to Make a Basic Snake Braplet (added 12/08/09)

How to Make a Basic Caterpillar Braplet (added 12/12/09)

And yet more to come soon! Bead on.