~ Welcome to Saha's Beadworks ~

About Me

My name is Merry vonBrauch and my life has been a journey of eclectic art experimentation since I was a child.

Over the years, I searched for a way to express my love for color and design but I had very little success in any of the widely used mediums. I've worked with oil paints, acrylic paints, clay, metal, pen and ink. Name an artistic medium and I've probably tried it.

One Christmas, about five years ago, I wanted to give a gift to a dear friend but I didn't have the money to buy her anything. Instead, I made her a necklace out of some beads I had. Not only did the necklace turn out nicely but I found that it filled a need in me to create something artistic. That was the start of beading for me. One thing lead to another, until beadwork became a way for me to fulfill my love of color and movement in design.

I happened upon loom beading via my search into all manner of things beaded. The loom seems to have grabbed me a bit more than other things. I still love to string my turquoise and coral not to mention the spiney oyster shells. However, the loom calls me and I can't seem to stay away.

These pages are filled with my evolution and endeavors over the last few years. I hope you enjoy them.

If you want something special, contact me and I will do my best to make it for you. Since all of my work is "one of a kind", I will never remake any of my designs unless specifically asked to by the original buyer.

Merry

Saha is a wild mustang

I adopted Saha and two other wild mustangs in 2001, from the BLM wild horse facility in Palomino Valley, just North of Reno, Nevada. It took me from July until October of that year to be able to touch her with even one finger and get her to eat leaves out of my hands. I was in love.

In October of 2001 she was injured by one or both of the other mustangs. I didn't know it was an injury. Instead, I thought she might have started to colic because she was laying on the ground rolling and would not get up. Colic can kill a horse... and it is not an easy death. I called every vet in the phone book looking for one who would come out and treat a wild mustang. The answer was always "no." This went on for two days until I came across a brave vet who said she'd come out to see what could be done.

When the vet got to our place, Saha had been laying on her side for two days. I was afraid we would have to put her down. It broke my heart but I wasn't going to let her suffer any longer than she already had. The vet got Saha rolled over and then up onto her feet. That's when we found out she was injured instead of having colic.

Saha was in recovery from October 2001 until April 2002 when she began getting up on her own. Until that time I had to roll her every day and then walk her in the desert to rehabilitate her injury and let her eat sage brush. According to the vet, sage has healing properties for wild horses.

We never found out if it was her spine or her pelvis that was stepped on by the other horses. Either way it doesn't matter since the end result is that Saha is unsuitable for riding or breeding. She remains my very large hairy pet.

For those 6 months that Saha and I walked and worked together to make her well we became good friends. I learned what toughness, trust and vulnerability are about, so I thought it only fitting to name my business after my beautiful, strong Saha.