Tack Review: Dark Jewel Designs Browbands!

It's about time for another tack review! Amelia, the owner/operator of Dark Jewel Designs, contacted me and asked if Cuna and I would be interested in doing a review of her custom browbands. Given Cuna's status as an equine supermodel and mine as his photographer, we were thrilled to participate.

Here's one of the cool features about Dark Jewel Designs browbands--the fancy bead work is fully custom and interchangeable. I selected the first string color (blue and blue--I do love blue) and let Amelia surprise me with the other.

Can't have him getting cold.

Cuna was super thrilled to play model in the horrid cold of the past few days, but I gave him regular breaks.

Plus cookies. Cookies make everything better.










The first string is the one I selected. It's absolutely gorgeous! I love the shimmering colors and the cheerful look. The blue on blue is striking and wow. Yeah. Just love this one.

The decorative bauble at the end of the beads is actually a chicago screw--an ingeniously simple way to change out the bead strings with a flat head screwdriver. Non-technical me did it by myself on the first try with no trouble at all, so they are definitely easy to use.

 

Favorite shot.

Then it was time to bust out the surprise string! I wasn't too sure about it when I first saw it--I mean, it was pretty, but it didn't have the sparkle-bling-wow appeal of the one I had chosen.

Beads #2

And then I put it on him. This one is a beautiful combination of brown and blue, two of my favorite colors on Cuna to begin with and the tone is just perfect with his lovely red coat. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when an artist out guesses me, but this is absolutely my favorite look on Cuna. 

The ladies. They love me.

He knows he's awesome.

We had tons of fun playing with the browbands (and my bit collection, what can I say?).

I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the craftsmanship. The beadwork was tight and professional, the connections strong and the browband as described. It will definitely be making the trek to our dressage debut with us and I'm tempted to take it into the jumper ring... ;)

I'd always secretly wanted a sparkly browband, but the high price tags associated with them were just too much for me to deal with and I had yet to see an interchangeable design that I actually liked. Until now. 

Here's the best part: for a browband and two fully custom bead strings, you're out a whole $40.

Seriously.

$40.

Additional strands are $10, in case you need a color change. It can happen.

So not only are they gorgeous, but they're also completely affordable (and your horse can start to dress like Cuna).

Oh. Yeah. As an outed tack whore on a shoestring budget, I can say I am absolutely thrilled to know about Dark Jewel Designs.

Rocking the shiny!

Now we are fancy.