Large Hole Beads and Leather - Perfect Together! AND a Giveaway!

I have been on this large hole bead-making kick lately, mostly because I love making them.  But they are fairly versatile.  I have customers who use them on dog leads, bracelets, and who just collect them! Here are some of my recent designs.

Today I'm going to show you some bracelets you can make withe the ammonite pressed ones!

My friend Melinda Orr (who lives fairly close to me but I only seem to see at Bead Fest!) makes awesome jewelry and has this amazing ability to just sit down and experiment and come up with really cool things!  She also has a great shop and she was the first person I thought of when I wanted to use leather with these beads.  We did a little swap, and I sent her some ammonite beads sets, and she sent me some leather, clasps and jump rings.

Here's what I  made with the beads and components!

This first bracelet was made with four strips of 2mm leather, end caps and a pretty floral clasp.  I twisted the leather slightly to make it a little bit interesting!  In adding the end caps, I glued one end on first, then added the beads, then cut the leather to length and added the final end cap. I used E6000 glue but Melinda says you can even use super glue! 

This second bracelet was made with 4mm leather, some pretty large hole silver beads in the swirl shape that matches the ammonite shape, and end caps and lobster clasp.  The ammonite large hole beads move a little bit in this design, which is fine with me, but if you don't want them to move at all, you can use larger leather diameter or what I did in the next photo.

For this bracelet, the leather is more like 6mm width.  I had a harder time getting the large hole bead on the leather, but found one that worked.  I used two enameled headpins that I made on the ends of the large hole bead.  You could do this if you didn't want your beads to move like the ones above.  This clasp is a copper magnetic clasp Melinda sent along. I also decided that if I wanted to use the larger, 6mm leather width, I could just double-dip my large hole bead mandrel to make the hole size slightly larger on the bead!

I can't wait to hop over and see what Melinda made with the beads I sent her.  I had a sneak peek so I know at least one is pretty awesome!  Please visit Melinda's Etsy Shop, and her Bandana Girl shop, for awesome leather components and many other items! 

Please visit Melinda's blog here to see what she made!

I am also offering a giveaway - please comment on this post and on Melinda's and you will be entered to win these beads - drawing by Melinda on Friday!

Susan Kennedy

Behind the Scenes in Leather Feather Land

Hello again dear bead loving friends! Welcome to Leather Feather Land… er… I mean my little corner of the world: Tree Wings Studio!

Today you find me buried under a heap of hundreds of leather feathers in progress! Yeah, I'm that crazy… I can't stop making them!

I can't remember if I've said it before now, but last year I finally stepped into the realm of wholesaling and these particular feathers are a result of that. Funny how just a couple years ago, I was pretty sure I'd never do wholesale and now here I am! I know wholesaling is not for everyone and there are some who wonder why I'm taking this path. It can be such a hard strain on an artisan to do so much of the same thing over and over and over and over… and over. Not to mention the potential cut in pay. For me, there was a lot of planning involved, numbers crunched again and again, long chats with friends and family, and of course, input from the lovely ladies of AJE. And now, I have to say I'm really happy I made the decision to go for it—it's hard work, yes, but it's all part of getting me closer to my dream job: making what I love full time.

One day I promise to share a bit more about how and why I decided wholesale was right for me, but for today, I'm giving myself a little break from thinking and am giving you a tour of my studio mess instead… I hope you enjoy it!

For these big orders, I pull out my biggest table to keep this mess separated from my regular mess so I'm not over crowded when I go to work on the regular stuff. It's actually half a Ping-Pong table… it would be the whole Ping-Pong table if it would fit!

I love making tools and whatnot to make my job easier! Each of my feather designs has a series of stencils I made to ensure patterns are consistent.

Each feather starts with a stenciled layout and then every single detail is "drawn" on carefully by hand with my wood burner.

I always have a few design inspirations nearby and while my hands are busily working away, my mind muses on new ideas. During coffee breaks, I'll sometimes do a little experimenting too. That's actually one thing I really love about large orders—the work becomes very methodical when you've got hundreds of the same thing to make and there's so much time to think!

I like to break things up a bit, to keep it from getting too dull—especially when I'm working extra long hours. I'll divide my work into smaller batches and rotate between them throughout the day so I'm only doing the same thing for a couple hours max. Nothing worse than a bored artist! It also helps prevent hand cramps.

And blisters—wow yeah! Even the most calloused, over worked, outdoor loving (oops, I forgot my gloves!), horse petting, bead making hands can get blisters if you don't take a break! And then there was the time I got poison ivy… okay, I'll stop with all the details!

It's many hours of work before I can begin painting the feathers, but it's always a happy moment when I start mixing and applying layers of color!

Painting remains my very favorite part of whatever I make! There's something so magical in the way that color brings life to a creation.

Still lots more feathers to go—and now, it's time for me to get back to work! I hope you had fun joining me in my studio today!

Wishing you all a wonderfully creative weekend!

Rebekah Payne
Tree Wings Studio

Blog: treewingsstudio.com

Shop: treewingsstudio.etsy.com

New leather for jewelry making… or not…

You've probably noticed that one of my most favorite themes for my bead making and jewelry designing is horses. I'll just go ahead and admit it—I'm a horse nut. I love practically everything horse related!

Just recently I started riding again after taking a break most of last year and through this summer. I've been making some repairs and adjustments to my riding tack and dug out my super dirty, old western saddles. These poor saddles haven't seen the light of day in several years.

I have no clue exactly how old they are, but I would guess at least twenty-some and judging by all the wear on them, they've really been through a lot… and sitting in the garage all this time really hasn't done them any good. They came to me already very worn and uncared for and after a brief cleaning I put them away and haven't touched them since.

Now you're probably wondering how I've been riding when these saddles haven't been touched in years, right? With a simple bareback pad. That's it. I learned to ride totally bareback (just me sitting on a horse… and sometimes falling off) and can't stand at all using stirrups… not to mention the chore of lugging that heavy saddle around! I think my horses prefer bareback pads too.

My noble steeds—beautiful not-so-white Lady and handsome Strider. They were not at all keen on the idea of photos before breakfast, so you'll have to be satisfied with a photo of them eating. On a little side note: notice all those walnuts? This year has been the most plentiful year I've ever seen… it's really too bad I don't like black walnuts!! Want some?

Okay, and if you're still wondering why exactly I'm showing you old saddles on an art bead and jewelry making blog… just take a close look at the leather…

Very cracked and dry, yes! But wonderfully tooled too! I'm thinking textures for new polymer beads. And also copying the pattern into smaller designs for stamp making. 

And then, it occurred to me that as worn as the saddles are and as much as I dislike riding with a "real" saddle… maybe, just maybe, I should repurpose them!

Thoughts of using the leather for cuff bracelets and maybe some large focals or even collar pieces are floating around in my mind. But, do I really want to cut my saddles into pieces?! Almost seems like a crime. I can't decide!

This little piece is already destined for a bracelet since the back is totally torn up and can't be repaired. And then I'll have to finish cleaning the saddles before I decide which way to go for sure.

What about you? What would you do—repair or repurpose? Have you ever had a hard time deciding to repurpose something for your jewelry making or crafting? Do share!

Rebekah Payne

Tree Wings Studio