Silver and Garnet Watch Cuff

Having made a couple of wired cuffs in base metals, I had decided it was time to make one in sterling. However, I had a beautiful watch face with Swarovski crystals around the edge, and so I started to toy with the idea of incorporating the watch into the cuff.

My biggest initial problem was setting the face in a way that still gave access to the back of the watch in order to be able to change the batteries. Normally, if I had a bead that was this heavy I would have used some wire down the back to help secure it but I couldn't do that this time. Being limited therefore to the joins on either side of the watch, I went with the notion that many strands making up one thickness are stronger than one thick strand (I've seen it proven with twigs!)

I then had to ensure that the base wires of the cuff were shaped in a way that gave access to the winder on the watch.

Once the watch was placed I could then play around with the design of the rest of the cuff. I had some gorgeous garnet beads both in rounds and in disc shapes and decided that nothing much more was really needed. I therefore just added some sterling beads and a few silver crystal Swarovskis to enhance the silver of the cuff and the lovely deep red colour of the garnets.

So I had my end result - a beautifully unique Silver and Garnet Watch Cuff!