The craft
Meticulously made by hand, link by link
Every piece is made by hand, one link at a time. There is no factory behind this site, no team and no restock schedule — one pair of hands, in London, working a single strand at a time.
The steps, in order
A piece begins as loose beads and a coil of wire. A length is cut, one bead is threaded onto it, and a loop is turned at each end with pliers — the second loop closed onto the loop before it, so the two beads are joined and nothing else holds them together. Then the next bead, and the next. Fifty-nine of them and more go into a full strand, in order, and the strand is finished only when the last loop closes.
The beads, the medals and the crosses are bought in, and this site will not tell you what they are made of, because Claudia cannot verify it and will not guess. What is made here is the piece itself: the wirework, the order of the colours, the length of the run, and the hours that go into all three.
Why it is wired, not strung
Nothing that leaves here is threaded on cord or on ready-made chain. Cord stretches and frays, and when it finally gives way it gives way along its whole length, with the beads on the floor. A wired strand has no single length to fail: each bead is held by its own two loops, independent of every bead beside it.
That independence is also what makes a piece repairable. A link that opens or wears can be turned again and closed on its own, without disturbing the beads on either side, for as long as the piece is carried. And because every loop is turned by hand rather than machined, no two pieces come out identical — a piece can be made again on request, and it will not come back quite the same.
Read what happens after a piece arrives, or more about the making and the name.