Wrap It Up!

I mentioned in a past post about making jewelry to compete go along with David's Jewelry. Well this is one of the things I started to make. I had a spool of white suede laying around, and it looked lonely. I played with it a bit, trying to figure out what to make. I ended up making various leather bracelets, but this one is by far my favorite!

I Love This Bracelet!

I've worn mine pretty consistently for a few months now. It may be a little dirty, but it's still damn cute. It has a slight punk rock feel to it, while still being casual and cute. I thought I would share a quick little how to, in case anyone was interested. This bracelet can seriously take anywhere from 5 min, to 30 min. It all depends on the style you go with, and the items you use.

First we'll start with supplies. You need some suede cord (I used 3 mm). You can buy this in spools, or in little packages that you can get about 2 bracelets out of. Some silver wire, I use 24 gauge. A wire cutter, and some sort of pliers. It doesn't matter the kind, as long as the inside is smooth and doesn't have those horrible teeth! Then depending on the look you want, and the items you have, you either need some large hold beads, or some sort of bead that you can wire wrap around the leather. It really doesn't take that much! For this tutorial I'm going with some gemstone chips I have laying around.

Supplies, Supplies!

Step one is measuring how long you need your leather to be. You could measure your wrist and do it that way, but I find that to be too much work. I simply hold the leather with my finger, and wrap it around my wrist the desired amount of times. I go with 5, but go with whatever you like.

Measuring the amount of leather you need.

This is the part where you have 3 options. One, leave the leather plain, and jump to the end to finish the bracelet off. Option 2, add some large hole beads (one for each time it wraps around the bracelet, and then finish the bracelet off. Or option 3, which is what I'm going to show you. If you are doing the 3rd option, and wrapping beads or stones around the leather, you will need to wrap the leather around your wrist, like you are wearing it. Mark off where you would like your beads or stones to be. Don't worry about the marks, they will be hidden with your beads.

My lovely photoshopped markings.

From here, take off the leather and gather your wire, and your beads/gems. Cut a piece of wire a few inches long, and string it through the bead. You want to hold the bead/wire against the leather tight enough that it won't slide around, but not to tight that it will push the leather back and leave lumps against your wrists. Start to wrap one side of the bead, making sure not to overlap, but keeping the wire nice and close to that bead.

Wire wrapping

Wrap the other side the same way, but change the direction on which way it wraps. So if you did the first wire wrap starting on the top, start on the bottom this time. Make sure you do the same amount of wraps around the each side and end the wire at the same place. I typically do 3 wraps on each side, and end it on the bottom of the bracelet. Trim off any excess wire and pinch the ends down tight.

Finished wrap

Continue doing this on each of the marks you previously drew on, until all marks have beads. Once they are done, it's time to finish up the bracelet! I have a few ways of doing this, but this one is one of the easiest and quickest ways. You can use any kind of cord ends, I used a simple Barrel Cord end (I think that's what they are called. To use these, you put a bit of super glue on the leather cord, then slip it on the barrel end. Using your pliers, pinch the bottom ring shut, so it's tight against the leather, and you can't pull the cord out. Do this on both sides. From there, add a lobster clasp to the barrel end on one side, and a jump ring to the other side.

End of the bracelet

There! You have it! A new piece of jewelry! There is so many options with this bracelet. The leather cord comes in a lot of colors, anywhere from White, Brown, Black and all sorts of other colors. The bead choices are endless. Just play around and have fun!

Finished Bracelet

I hope you enjoy these bracelets as much as I do! Have fun!