I have decided to use a simple woven bracelet for this post. While the object doesn’t hold much historical value, neither from my family nor in history in general, it holds a lot of sentimental value to me personally. It was the first gift my girlfriend gave to me, and the first gift I received here in New Paltz.  

The bracelet is three and a half inches across and is made from black leather and beads. The leather is carefully woven in what appears to be a double-braid, constantly alternating which pair of leather strips flow through the center channel. At equally spaced intervals on the bracelet, small white and amber beads are woven into an intricate pattern. The pattern once translated to “I love You” in morse code but the constant wearing of the bracelet caused the beads to shift and rearrange, leaving the original statement as nothing but a cheerful memory. The two ends of the bracelet are knotted off and tied together with a slip knot, allowing the bracelet to be tightened around the wrist, and two larger white beads are tied at the ends of the knot. 

When I first received the bracelet, it was almost shiny with the glint of new materials. However, after much wear and tear, the bracelet has lost much of its pristine glamore it once held. The slip knot is loosening, and the leather strands it runs over are showing cracking from the constant friction. The pattern of beads has become sloppy, much less uniform and more of a random assortment from rolling along the wrist. Still, despite the cracks and deformations, the bracelet holds much sentimental value to me. It was a gift from my girlfriend, whom I met on this very campus, and just the emotional value of the gesture outways the gift itself. The use of new materials, bought from a local crafts shop on main street we’ve walked through many times, shows how much she values me. The careful, hand-worked pattern shows the effort she has put into the gift. The fact that she gave me a gift at all is symbolic in a way, showing how much she enjoyed my company and our time together. 

When I first received the bracelet, I wore it every day. I don’t wear jewelry, but the sentimental value of the object along with it’s simple and minimalistic design are appealing to me. As of the time of writing this post, I do not wear the bracelet as I am afraid that doing so will lead to the knots untying and the pattern of beads being lost. But by this point the bracelet has subsided from being a decoration and has become a much more important symbol: that of our bond. I love the woman who gave me this bracelet, not because of the gifts she’s given me but because I enjoy her company and love spending time with her. I do not need a bracelet, nor any other physical object or quantifiable measurement, to prove this fact. We care for each other, we enjoy each other, and we love each other. Besides, if we ever want to make another bracelet we know where to go to make another.