Description
Medieval Inspired Leather Cuff Bracelet
I designed this leather cuff bracelet after taking a private class with leatherwork master, Melissa Cable. You can read more about the class here. But this left me with a set of basic skills and a head full of new ideas!
I wanted to experiment in using leather as a backdrop to show off seed beads as bead-weaving is my first love. This design seemed to have a Medieval feel about it. So I used this as a guide when I was looking for inspiration for the patterns for the seed beads.
Materials and Techniques
For this project you will need a strip of leather, some basic leather tools (leather cutter, hole punch, eyelet splayer), a small selection of Delicas in size 11 and some leather eyelets. I have written instructions that you will find detailed and easy to follow. All the techniques are basic. You will be using the basic version of Square stitch for this project. So if you are new to this technique, you can find a beginner’s guide here to download for free.
I designed the leather cuff bracelet so that it is fully reversible. Although the leather has a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ side, I felt that both were equally attractive to wear. The same applied to the eyelets. Although they are designed to provide a smooth ring on the right side, I think the splayed fixing on the wrong side is actually just as appealing. I created two slightly different beading designs and used different colouring for each side so that I can wear my leather cuff bracelet with different outfits.
You can opt to change the colouring around completely. Just use one of my pattern designs, or even create your own design for this project. Once you have these basic skills you can make your own very personalised leather cuff bracelet.
If you enjoy this experiment with leather, you might also like my freeform cuff bracelet which fastens with a leather clasp. You can buy leather and tools from Spoilt Rotten Beads.
