One day strolling through Instagram an advert popped up, normally something that you are completely not interested in at all, however this one caught my eye. It was a advertisement for Wanderer Bracelets. Being a keen lover of handmade bracelets it's no surprise that I clicked on their profile to have a look. I would say 8 times out of 10 when I click on a bracelet advert the bracelets are factory made and then sold for a crazy high price, but this is where Wanderer Bracelets is different.
Wanderer Bracelets is a company created by a traveller who managed to get lost in the jungle of Bali whilst riding his motorbike. It's there where he found a village of struggling artisan carvers. The traveller asked a artist to create some bracelets for some friends back home, which sparked the idea for the Wanderer Bracelets company. As you can imagine being an artisan in a village in the middle of a jungle is not a job which you can maintain a living with. With the traveller's business skills and the Balinese's talent a company was born. A company which gives you handmade bracelets, and a sustained living for an artisan carver. According to Wanderer's website they are now working with 150 artisans.
As much as I loved this idea that if you bought a bracelet you are supporting a community of artisans, I didn't straight away buy a bracelet. The reason being was just me being a tight university student, aka I didn't want to spend the cash! Now Wanderer Bracelets isn't the cheapest place you can get bracelets like these, but if you consider the work that has gone into it and how you are supporting people, you can excuse the price. It's not ridiculously expensive but at the same time its not cheap. Personally now that I do have a bracelet it was worth every penny. The bracelet I chose to buy is one of the more popular bracelets, the Custom Coordinates bracelet.
The idea behind the Custom Coordinates bracelet is for you to pin point a location which has a special meaning for you. I personally chose the coordinates of my home town, as a reminder home wherever I may be (you can totally tell I get home sick at university.) It's a beautiful idea which I have fully bought into. The bracelet it's self is made out of natural water buffalo bone, just to clarify the buffalos are not hunted out just for their bones to make these bracelets, they are buffalos which live on the farms of the villagers. Saying that if your a vegan I don't think you would approve of these bracelets. The bracelet strap is made out of a adjustable nylon thread band. You can have two different style of strap, a tassel end (which is what I chose) or a button end. The sizing of the bracelets is fair, however not big enough to be a ankle bracelet (I know some people want to try and wear the bracelet like this but it won't work.) The bracelet came is a little cotton bag with some extra little notes from the company, such as a thank you note. So if you don't like plastic packaging (like me) the cotton bag is a real bonus.
The only other subject matter I haven't yet talked about is how long did it taken to come. Personally mine took a while because my customs post office took forever. I don't know about over countries but if you are ordering from the UK beware of the customs charge. Wanderer Bracelets don't pay this as it is an American company. I didn't have to much to pay that much for the customs charge, it just took forever. Wanderer Bracelets themselves send you a link to how your bracelet is doing and when its being dispatched, so I knew the wait wasn't their fault. I can't remember exactly how long it took Wanderer Bracelets to make and send my bracelet but I think it was just under 2 weeks. Which isn't bad for something that's being handmade.
I think that's all I have to say about Wanderer Bracelets for now. I personally can't wait to order another bracelet even if its means waiting for the customs post office. I hope you guys check them out, I shall leave the links below.
Website: https://wandererbracelets.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wandererbracelets/
Emily H Cole x