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Thursday 4 December 2014

Purple'n'Blue on Leather

It's been a long time since I donned black leather... time to dust it off!


Well what did you think I meant?

This is a 10 bead twisted bracelet using the trollbeads black leather bracelet, I've mixed an artisan matched set of 5 glass beads, with a similar artisan unique, Trollbeads Purple Wave (production bead) and 3 Trollbeads Python Uniques.

I've posted a tutorial blog on this before, but a quick recap on how to create this look is below:

Place 5 beads on each strand - in a group of 2 then 3,
and reversed on the other strand, 3 then 2
so you have 5 in each batch as shown above. 

Attach a lock to the small ends, and twist it around
until you've created a pattern as above.

The next stage can be a bit tricky as you put the bracelet on, wrap around your wrist twice, I do mine up by using the bracelet to hold the thick end with the holes underneath it whilst I attached the lock.  Once secured I pop the lock under twists to make it fit snugly, shown on the photo below left.

This leaves you with 2 twisted groups as shown below on the right.


Then once you've got to this stage, it's a case of pushing the 2 groups together and arranging them to suit, and for comfort and you're good to go.

With leather bracelets,  unlike wearing silver bracelets or bangles, you place your beads on, but you have to do the "arranging" once it's on your wrist to create the final effect.  It takes a bit more effort to look casual sometimes!

What do you think?  Do you like the leather look?
Worth the effort or too fiddly for you?

8 comments:

  1. I love the leather look! I prefer it to both bangles and silver chains.

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    Replies
    1. How cool! :D That's lovely to hear Emma, nice to know others can be a fan of the leather bracelets :)

      Mars xx

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  2. I love my leathers, but I don't switch up my combinations very often. And I tend to use them with only a few beads.

    I'd love to try the twisted leather look one day, but my current leathers aren't long enough to do it. How long are your leathers in comparison to your chains?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tracy,

      My chains are 17cm + 2cm lock, so 19cm all together, my leathers are 36cm (smallest size) + 2cm lock so 38cm in total (i.e. equivalent to 19cm as they wrap twice).

      So essentially the same size - some of my leathers are more stretched than others (bought that way from new) as well as the natural stretch from wearing. This one is a very snug fit, and some of my leathers would not take 10 beads on at all, on those I'd wear less beads and maybe not twist as much.

      There are very few twists on the back of the bracelet so any twists are "moved" to the front for maximum effect. Best think to do is experiment... I will often do this look with only 6 beads, so a 2 and a 1 on each strand so you get 3 in a segment.

      Happy experimenting!
      Mars xx

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    2. Interesting. Similar to me. I have a 19cm total bracelet and the smallest leather, but I've cut off most of the holes on my leather (my black because it has stretched. I think I'm down to the second last hole on that one!)

      Perhaps I will experiment a bit with the one that has stretched the least and my longer lock and see what I can do! :)

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    3. Oops I mean it's a snug fit once it's been twisted, not before!

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  3. I have one leather bracelet but can never quite get it to work! Its a navy blue one, am thinking maybe I need grey or black hmmm not sure! The best I have managed so far is the violets of Feb with a rocky beach bead either side but the bit of leather that was empty looked redundant and when I put beads on that bit (the other strand if you get what I mean) it didn't quite work!

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    Replies
    1. Have you seen my original post? I covered the ways I'd been wearing mine early on up to my Winter Beach version...

      Leather Bracelets - How do you wear yours?

      It also looks nice if you match it with ribbons too...

      Leather Bracelet with ribbons

      They are good to play around with, but harder to work with initially!

      Mars xx

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P.s. If you use an iPad/iPhone and are having trouble leaving a comment on Blogger, you might have better luck using a browser that's not the default iPad one... Then from the "Comment as" drop down menu choose Name/Url (you can leave URL field blank or add your web address) or Anonymous and (hopefully) away you go! Mars xx