Scrap Leather Beads

Since leather is so expensive, it can really hurt me to throw out even a small scrap (yes, sometimes I do throw small scraps out).  So, I decided that I could use the scraps by punching holes in them with my leather punch and then threading the leather onto metal wire, thus making a bead.

Here’s what the leather looks like after I punch the holes:

Now that I have the leather “dots” I string them onto a straight pin.  This can get tricky with my large fingers (I have compared them to sausages in other posts, so I’ll leave that alone) but it can be done.

Once they are all threaded, use round head pliers to make an eyelet on either end–this will allow the “leather bead” to be tied to a string of beads, or to be linked to a more metaly (yes, I made up a word…it happens) necklace, but with a leathery, natural feel.

A nice variation on this bead is an earring made in basically the same way (pictured below).

(The leather bead above can be purchased at my online store:

Treasure Roc: The Re-Discovery Store)

The only difference here, is that I added a bead to the top and bottom of the punched leather circles and left the pin head on one end.  That made it a little more dressy and gave only one eyelet.  If you wanted some danglier (that might be a word, but don’t try it out in an English essay, just in case) type earrings, you could leave the second eyelet in and attach more stuff to the bottom (I’d be cool with it you messing with my design…provided you posted a comment about your variation–maybe even if you didn’t).

That’s all for Josh’s Junk Corner (a.k.a. www.junkcreation.com, as if you didn’t already know what I meant).