Jessica emailed us about a gift for a really good friend. Not an anniversary, not a birthday. Just a friend she wanted to do something for. Her friend Anna liked belt buckles, so we started with the size (big) and material (bronze). From there we had some online conversations about their friendship so I could get an idea of what to design.
Anna and Jess from their instagram grids.. A friendship built on single track racing and too many stories to fit on one buckle.
Custom Engraved Bronze Belt Buckle: Every Symbol from a Memory
Jessica told me about their adventures, (bike racing, touring, different home cities), their lives (pets, kids, style, hobbies) and I chose symbols for many of the landmarks in their friendship. The paisley is for Paisley Park, a place they visited together. The evergreen is for the Pacific Northwest. The paper airplane is to inspire travel for more adventures together. There are surrey wheels and single tracks, part of their shared love for serious cycling and tourist silliness.
And then there's the name: Schwinn. Anna's last name. Jessica mentioned it casually, the way you mention something so familiar you forget other people don't already know. Schwinn, as in the bicycle company. No big deal, just major bike history royalty!
Every symbol on the buckle comes from a specific story. This was the first design concept based on cross stitch samplers I had loved at the Santa Fe Folk Art Museum.
How a Custom Engraved Belt Buckle Goes from Stories to Metal
A project like this doesn't start with a file. It starts with a conversation. Jessica's emails were detailed, full of the kind of context we needed before we could draw a single line. I felt like I got to know both of these super cool women through making this buckle. And we did many design rounds to get it just right.
Multiple iterations resulted in the final layout above. (After one billion wee adjustments).
Many versions later, the final design landed somewhere between a collage and a sketchbook page. I created snowflakes or fractals with each symbol giving the whole thing a feeling of movement and repetition, allowing the symbols to then become geometric shapes. It feels personal because it is. No two of these buckles would ever look the same, because no two friendships have the same stories. Check out the reel to see the buckle in video: https://www.instagram.com/steeltoestudios/
Why a Custom Belt Buckle Works as a Friendship Gift
Most friendship gifts are consumable or decorative. A candle. A dinner out. They work fine, but they don't get worn. A belt buckle goes on every morning. It sits at the center of an outfit, quiet and personal, and nobody else in the room knows what the symbols mean but can appreciate your dope belt buckle! .
The finished bronze buckle. Anna is super crafty and will be making the leather belt herself. There is a secret message engraved on the back of the buckle!
That's the point. It's not a display piece. It's a private inventory of shared history. Anna can look down and see Paisley Park, her pup, the paper airplanes, all of it, engraved into bronze and on her person.
Jessica could have sent any ole thing. Instead, she sent us a list of stories and asked us to make something that would last as long as the friendship. It was an honor to make this for Jess and Anna!
Start with a story of a friendship. → steeltoestudios.com/collections/custom-belt-buckles
A gift to mark the moment.