Lovin’ Leather: My Leather Love Story and Favorite Leather Jewelry Making Supplies

None of you will be shocked to read that I’m a very girly girl, but even this super-girly girl has fallen for leather jewelry making in a big way. I know just when it happened, too, and it’s all Katie Hacker’s fault. (Thanks Katie!)

Here’s what Katie did: She made this gorgeous wrap leather bracelet using LeatherCord USA‘s golden metallic leather strap bracelet and a beautiful sparkling crystal buckle. When I saw it, my eyes were opened to how pretty leather could be, and the ideas I had in my mind about leather jewelry started to melt away. I was intrigued and open to the possibilities.

Leather Jewelry Making with Metal

While I was checking out leather, I still loved my longtime friend, metalsmithing, so I combined my love of metal and my new interest in leather into this bracelet for a friend’s birthday. (Here are some more ideas for pairing leather and metal.)

She is an avid traveler and music fan, a little boho and a little vintage, so this design and combination of supplies felt like a perfect thing for her. By then I was getting fonder of leather jewelry making but still unsure if it was right for my super-girly self . . .

Leather Jewelry Making with Pearls

And then, pearls. The tipping point for me with leather was when I accidentally bought a strand of large-hole pearls at Bead Fest last August, thinking they were standard-hole pearls. Trying to make lemonade from my lemons, I decided to “string” and “knot” the pearls on leather, and the result has become this, my favorite necklace.

The baroque pearls are knobby and bulbous but gorgeously iridescent and lustrous at the same time. They’re a perfect contrast to the dark bronze metallic leather cord (also from LeatherCord USA), which is almost gold, almost copper, almost brown, and just right. So now I’m hooked on leather.

Colorful Leather Jewelry-Making Supplies

I know, Tucson was three months ago. But I found some new leather jewelry-making supplies there that I’ve been waiting to share with you at just the perfect time. Our friends at LillyPilly Designs always have something new to covet–sheets of slate, brilliant metal sheet in interesting colors and textures, and now colorful leather components and shapes like flowers, birds and twigs, circles and more, in LillyPilly’s own exclusive color palette. Some have textures, some are metallic, some are just natural leather. I love all of them!

Heidi and Heather from LillyPilly had created so many inspiring designs to show off how to use their leather jewelry-making supplies, and they shared several great tips for working with it:

• You can dome a leather component by wetting it and placing it in a dapping block under a dap until it dries.
• When trying to fit these leather components together, such as placing colored circles back in the pierced loop pieces, you can hammer them to enlarge them enough to fit. (You can also fill those loops with resin!)
• You can connect the LillyPilly Designs leather components to each other using Crafter’s Pick glue, and the leather will stay flexible.

Leather is affordable, colorful, it has wonderful textures, and it’s so stylish. What’s not to love? If you love leather, too–or if you’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to try leather jewelry making–today is the day!

Love leather with these fun tutorials!