Usually when I think of “belted”, I’m in the arena of music as in “the singer really belted it out.” But for the past few weeks, the word has conjured new meaning.

Earlier this year, I made a couple of mixed link belts that took a good long time to create and made my hand ache. The original practice belt is in the picture below on the far left. When the second of the belts was complete and had been sold, I vowed never to do another one. Then our bead group decided to make belts at our last gathering. “Urgh”, thought I, but I decided to give it another go.

I wanted something western, but the only readily linkable shape I could think of was a horseshoe. The first prototypes are in the right picture.  The horseshoe links worked much better and were easier to make than the mixed links. The horseshoes swivel easily and fit nicely around the torso. The final version of this style belt is in the picture above. I added turquoise to the buckle at the request of a boutique. You can see how these look in the picture below.

I’m also experimenting with heart shapes for the links and learned that they require a horseshoe link between each heart in order to swivel and fit. I’ve also played with a bird shape, but that didn’t hatch well.

Next, I’m trying a smaller gauge wire and smaller horseshoes with dangles in multiple locations on the piece.

I would enjoy hearing other suggestions for shapes. Until then, I’ll just keep belting it out.