Bonus Leather

Sorry for the delay in this week's bonus post, kiddies! It has been raining out the wazoo lately in Dallas, and while I love dark, dreary weather, it's not so good for blog photography (phoblography?). Luckily for you, the sun came out to play today, so I was able to get some decent photos of the newest additions to my jewelry collection.

After last week's leather jacket refashion (have you voted yet?), I had lots of little bits of leather. Not enough to make anything substantial, but too much to feel okay about throwing it in the garbage. I've pinned quite a few jewelry ideas made from leather scraps, so I thought I'd give it a whirl myself.

For my first trick, I starting cutting out leaf shapes and arranged them by size. I ended up with 42 pieces.

Then I paired them up - one big and one little.

I used a push pin to make a hole at the top of each pair.

Then I stuck a jump ring through them and attached them to a chain.

I kept doing this over and over, alternating suede and smooth sides, until I have a full necklace. Plus, I used a couple pairs of leaves for earrings.

Since I had all my jewelry goodies out and still had scraps of leather, I kept going! I cut one big and two small curved feather shapes.

Then I snipped the sides at random intervals, and used my push pin and jump rings to attach the feathers to earring hooks and a chain. I snipped the chain and added a clasp at the back of the neck as well.

But wait, there's more! I grabbed a few head pins and fake pearls.

I snipped each head pin off about an inch above the pearl and used my round-nose jewelry pliers to form a loop.

And another jump ring attached each pearl to a feather.

Okay, now I'm done!

Not bad for scraps, eh?