This was one of the very first leather bracelets I made, way back in 2013, and it finally broke! This is exciting for me, because I get to talk about how my products hold up over time!

This bracelet saw regular wear, though not daily, for almost 4 years. This was the prototype of this bracelet design. After I laid out and laser-cut this one, I looked at it hard and decided that it looked too fragile, with the bridges of leather between the cuts for the scales being too small. Basically, I was worried that it would break too easily. So for the design to sell I reduced it to 3 columns of scales, and increased the size of the gaps a little bit. But I wore this one myself to see how it would last.

And boy was I surprised! 4 years! Wow. And I was not careful with it. It finally gave in to a pretty darn forceful tug while pulling my hand free of some tight fabric.

You can also see here how the leather ages over time. Grime and sweat from your hands will soak into it, which darkens the underside. Oils and sweat stuff it comes in contact with will slowly affect the surface, giving it a bit of variation and patina. And after years of wear, the leather is now quite flexible, floppy even.

Anyway, I like being able to share how things wear over time. It’s not as sexy as fresh clean new merchandise, but I think it’s important.

And it kind of highlights societal weirdnesses around prices of Things that this piece of jewelry I sell for the price of a meal at a restaurant will hold up for so long.

Some more photos and forensics over on my Tumblr.