Crafting jewelry at craft beer bar

As the musicians play — the lights turned down low — off to the side at the bar sits a small desk lamp illuminating a workspace where Sandy Taylor focuses on her craft.

The 70-year-old retired AT&T technical network manager has been a counted cross-stitch enthusiast for years. But in the last half-decade, she’s thrown her hat into a different “ring” making chainmaille jewelry for a frenzied fan base.

Some of Sandy Taylor’s finished handiwork. 

What’s unique about her craft is where she works on her creations — on a bar stool at Middleton Brewing.

“What better place to work on a craft than a craft beer place,” she said with laughter in her voice.

Most Mondays, and sometimes on the weekend, Taylor can be found twisting and bending metal rings and fastening them to each other to make some elaborate jewelry.

“I saw a bracelet years ago that I absolutely loved. It was a Byzantine chain,” she said. “Every time I saw something like it, I wondered what went into making it.”

One day she saw a gentleman with a wallet chain. After a brief conversation, she learned his daughter made it for him; that she made chainmaille jewelry.

It’s a tedious process consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.

“So, I wondered if I could make the Byzantine chain I once admired and got on YouTube. Turns out I could,” she said.

She learned a lot that way and even purchased tutorials to hone her craft.

“That first one took a long time,” she said. “Now it takes me a couple of hours to make one; it depends on how small the weave.”

She works mostly with stainless steel but has also been known to use red brass, copper and anodized aluminum.

“I love it when one of my wire babies get a good home,” she said. “Once, I had an older woman, very petite, tell me she loved the bracelets but could never find one to fit, her wrists were too small. So, I made her one, and she was so happy.”

On a different occasion, a young man walked into the brewery and breathed a visible sigh of relief when he saw Taylor.

“He was familiar with my work. He told me he was glad to see me, that he thought he was going to have to face the crowd at the mall to buy his mother a gift,” she said. “Now his problem was solved.”

It’s not just bracelets she makes, either. She also makes pendants that contain striking Swarovski crystals

Shortly before Christmas, Taylor was wearing a poinsettia pendant she had made when a shopper, someone she had never met, approached her and asked to purchase it.

“So, I sold it to her - right on the produce aisle,” she said smiling.

She said sales of her merchandise at the brewery fluctuates.

“You can’t predict tastes,” she said. “You think you know what people are going to like and they don’t. Still, someday you’re disappointed in what you’ve made, and yet people love it.”

Over the years she’s been benevolent with her earnings giving to organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation where she contributed nearly $500 last year. She has also given to the Lupus Foundation, WAG and PAWS.

“Her work is wonderful and the fact she gives to so many causes tells you what kind of person she is,” Jeannie Lively, co-owner of the brewery said. “I have several things she’s made. It’s amazing what she can do.”

The tools of Sandy Taylor’s trade.

Taylor said it felt good to give back.

“I have a whole lot of repeat customers,” she said. “So that tells me I’m on to something.”

*Where to find her: You can find her on Facebook @ Wire Bender Chainmaille or by calling 281-239-5337. Her work can also be seen at Middleton Brewing most Mondays where her husband Tom is the sound engineer for open mic night and some on the weekends.