A charm lives on your bag, but a bead? A bead lives in your hand.
There’s a real weight to that distinction. See, a bag is just something you carry along for the ride. But a knife, a pen, a flashlight… those are the things you reach for. They’re the tools you can find in the pitch black, your fingers closing around them by pure muscle memory because you’ve done it a thousand times. The bead sits right there, threaded onto the lanyard, meeting your palm every single time you go to work. It’s not just decorative, and it’s definitely not distant. It’s right there in the thick of it.
I wanted Dawn Hoof bead in that space. I wanted those four legs mid-sprint and that face full of beautiful, unreasonable joy riding a light or a blade the same way he rides a bag. Still grinning. Still absolutely certain that wherever we’re headed, it’s going to be a hell of a time. It’s the same horse, he’s just closer to the action now.
To get him there, the form had to shift. Not the soul of the character, mind you, just the shape. We made those quiet, subtle changes—the kind you’d only catch if you’d spent enough time holding the original charm to know every curve by heart. I noticed them, and I couldn’t just let them be.
On the craft: I designed Dawn Hoof myself. Each charm, bead is hand-cast in resin by the artists at Jelly Key, my artisan keycap studio. We hand-cast these in resin, layer by painstaking layer. No printers, no surface paint. Every single color is poured and cured on its own. This is real resin and real hands. No shortcuts, ever.
He’s still running. The bead just means that now, he goes wherever the work takes you.
Update: I added three new Dawn Hoof bead finishes, made for the folks who asked for something simpler than the originals. Same bead, same hand-cast resin, just quieter colors.
Ashstone stays close to the prototype: plain grey, black in the details, aged so it looks carried. Rusttide leans copper with a little green worked in. Moonforge is metallic silver with a light gold wash on the belly, the one I keep on my own light. All three are $32, a touch under the rest. Pick the one that fits how you carry.
Made and finished by hand, then sent by tracked post. Orders leave the bench within 7 business days. From dispatch, allow 7 to 10 days to the United States, 10 to 15 to Europe, and less within Asia.
Shipping is charged by the number of pieces: one $10, two $15, three $21, four $28, five $32. Six or more ships free. Each one comes with a cord. Tie it on, knot it tight, or braid your own lanyard.