Leather Bracelets (with tutorial)... How do you wear yours?

After blogging and tweeting my Rocky Beach Leather Bracelet I was asked, more than once, how I made it look "like that", which in turn led on to several conversations about Trollbeads leather bracelets, with some people confiding that they avoid wearing them as they've not found a look they're happy with.

Today's post is all about different ways to wear a leather bracelet, or more accurately the different ways I wear my leather bracelets, and by request a step-by-step guide to creating my Rocky Beach Leather Bracelet.


Ways to wear a leather bracelet

When I first got my blue leather bracelet it was a snug fit; it's best to buy as snug as you can as leather will naturally stretch over time and you can always fasten it on a longer setting initially as you have multiple holes to adjust the length you wear it at.  Bracelets come in 3 different sizes so it is important to try one on to see what size suits you best, I wear the smallest one.

My first combinations were a few beads strung on the bracelet.  At first I could only get 3-4 beads on, but as the leather started to stretch I could fit more on.  I didn't do much else with it at this stage.

Trollbead leather bracelets are 1 long piece of leather that is split into 2 strands, these wrap around your wrist twice so you get 4 strands to play with a look.  The 2 strands have metal loops at the end that you attach to the small end of a Trollbeads lock, with the wider end attaching to the leather thick strand that has holes in.

Later I started to experiment with making the combinations more "messy", the before picture on the left below is just after I put the bracelet on, the after picture on the right is the bracelet "arranged" with a silver combination doubled up in a stack.

You can see there is a massive difference in how it looks from putting it on to "arranging it when on" to get the best effect.  Unlike making silver bracelets up - where all the arranging happens before you put the silver bracelet on finished - with leather it can be the opposite, a little twist or arranging can make all the difference; the important thing is to play and try out different styles to see what suits you best and what you like.

Another before and after picture on how I wore this one, sometimes less is more, here I twisted the 2 long strands together to give it more "texture" which also helps to keep the "2x3 bead combination" in place.

The following 2 photos are what I call "messy combinations".  The first is a mix'n'match of totally uncoordinated beads for a fun bracelet worn on an afternoon out, I was wearing dark jeans and a black top so the only pop of colour was on my wrist.  The second photo was another messy combination but with fewer colours. 

I love my first blue leather and I still get a lot of wear out of it, but 6 months later along came a brown leather bracelet and I reverted to a favourite 2x3 design for it's first outing.

I love the messy combinations I made in the photo below using my dragon beads, and the blue bracelet was an experiment with spring colours that only survived long enough for me to take this photo, it wasn't actually a combination I ever wore.

Below is my focal bead bracelet using two stoppers to keep this combination in place, I love this bracelet and it's a great way to wear a really big bead that didn't work for me on a silver bracelet.

One of my favourite brown leather combos was this one, made with my Ruby Rock bead and Chess lock worn at the front - a style I copied from my friend Mike who writes a blog over at Mike's Trollbead Adventure!  This creates a 3 strand look and lets you show off an ornate or special lock as well as your beads.

The two final combinations shown below are more recent, the first made with my Easter Swap Beads sent by my swap partner, and the second is how I'm currently wearing my brown leather showing off my new "craggy" amber.

So those are a variety of ways I've been wearing my 2 leather bracelets.

The combination I've had most questions about though has been my 2-tone Rocky Beach Bracelet shown below.

Rocky Beach Tutorial

Start by threading your beads on the leather bracelet.  On the left strand I put 3 beads on first, then 2 beads.  On the right strand I put on 2 beads and then 3 beads so you have 5 on each wrap around your wrist, 10 in total.

Close up of how this looks when you space them out in a line.

I did think about the order they went in, but not too much as I knew I was going to make a messy twisted combination... I spaced out the bubble beads, put Silver Lighthouse in the middle of a 3 bead combo and put Pebbles and Fossils on different stages (they are actually on the same strand which isn't important), just that one is one the 2nd wrap and one is on the 1st wrap around your wrist.

Then I attached the small end of the lock to the 2 metal ends, and I twisted the bracelet by holding the flatter larger end still and just twisting it around by the lock.  The photo below shows it locked so I could take the photo!

Now the tricky part, how to put it on "twisted"... or at least this is how I do it, the easiest way is to get someone else to do this but if you are on your own this is how I put it on (swearing optional).

I hold the end with the holes under my middle finger, as I bring the lock around, I then cross the lock with my other hand over the end and use it to hold that in place whilst I wrap the bracelet around a second time.

This then allows me to lock the the bracelet as the end is being held by the bracelet and I can concentrate on the lock.  Bear in mind that I was not only doing up the bracelet, but my other hand was taking the photos, so I've got no photos of me actually locking this bracelet as I only have 2 hands!!

The back of the bracelet locked, Trolltree lock does work on leather but if you're doing up twisted bracelets yourself it's probably not the easiest lock to use.  My handy tip for getting it off is that it's MUCH easier to undo the smaller end attached to the 2 metal loops than it is to undo the large end from the leather holes.

Below is a picture of the front of the bracelet before it has been arranged further, you can see that the effect you get is twisted strands along each of the 4 strands and that they are slightly twisted around each other as well as being individually twisted.

Once on I "arrange" the bracelet to suit, I do this by ensuring the front is very twisted so the 2 wraps are made up of twists around the beads, almost in a 1 over 1 under fashion - I don't twist the 2 wraps over each other.

And here is the finished bracelet, it stays like this all day, because the twists help to keep it in place, and I also wear it as a snug fit.  It ends up slightly different every time I do this but this is one of the things I love about twisted designs!

Would love to hear about how you wear yours if you have one, or if you've considered getting one?

Ruby Rock

Ruby Rock was a bead released as part of the Mother's Day Collection of 3 beads on 1st March in the UK.

By coincidence I happened to pop into my Local Dealers (LD) on the day, and was disappointed to find that they were only carrying the 2 silver beads in the release and not Ruby Rock, which is the bead I was so excited about coming out.

Since writing my New Year's Bead Resolutions down for all to see, I've been focusing on what I want to achieve for myself, so regular readers will have noticed I've concentrated far less on the new releases, (as there are some great reviewing bloggers out there who are covering all of this so amazingly), and much more on my personal collecting habits.

Ruby Rock is a bead with multiple variations, I love stone type rocks and probably should have added my unspoken resolution to the official list, that I wanted to also start collecting the stones this year.  So far I've only bought Labradorite in the sales but Ruby Rock was most certainly next on my list - had my LD had any in that day there's a fair chance I would have come out with more than 1 as they are all quite different.

I, unlike many of my fellow collectors who are looking for very pinky stones, was looking for a mottled grey with hints of pink and purple to start with... as I had an idea of what I wanted to do with my first one.

I approached a retailer who I knew was happy to photograph individual stones and after describing what I was looking for they sent me front and back shots of 5 stones.  I quickly narrowed this down to 2 and after about an hour of deliberating chose 1.

I also picked up a lovely purple OOAK with swirly spots that I'd had on hold with them for a couple of weeks, I love Goldmine as they are so accommodating to their customers!  Be prepared for lots of photos whilst I show you the different aspects of it.

I made two bracelets with Ruby Rock as it came 2 days after my Chess Lock had arrived.  The first leather bracelet, the way of wearing the lock at the front was shamelessly copied from Mike Nand after seeing his Peacock Bracelet when he got his Chess Lock... yes we are so into our trollbeads we show each other photos as and when we get new goodies!  Now Mike has blogged his Peacock Bead I feel comfortable in showing you my copied front Chess Lock look!

However what I really wanted to do with Ruby Rock was add it to another bracelet I've already shown you and pair it with my other stone!

I've been good in one aspect that I've only bought 1 so far... but I'd watch this space!

Big and Beautiful - Navy Galaxy

In a previous post I explained all about the small and beautiful bead kits (or rather Leann at Charms Addict did) and how I still had several beads I really wanted.  My top most wanted was the Navy Galaxy; but try as hard as I could, I just could not get a small and beautiful one.

Then came what the community called the big and beautifuls.  Same style of beads but with a universal core (bigger holes to fit all the other branded bracelets and not just troll) and larger glass, closer to a Troll standard glass production bead size.  But I still couldn't score a Navy Galaxy even though they were less desirable to a lot of collectors due to the bigger core - some folk just really don't like Universal Cores, often shortened to UU rather than classic core CC if you wondered what all those acronyms stood for.

So it looked like I was never going to get my hands on one, then enter my trollfairy - who won the chance to get a knockout Big and Beautiful Navy Galaxy, and gave it to me for the retail price she paid for it - so given how hard it has been to get hold of this, I've been very lucky to have one at this price.

This was a really hard bead to photograph on it's own, however I had no problem using this in a bracelet!  Time for a new combination!

L-R from lock: stopper, Beach, Luccicare Bead, Artisan Bead (unknown), Libra and Sagittarius Zodiac Star,
Purple OOAK, Luccicare bead, Aquarius Zodiac Star, Blue & Black OOAK, Silver Wisdom,
Luccicare Bead,  Libra and Sagittarius Zodiac Star, Purple OOAK, Purple Python OOAK,
Aquarius Zodiac Star, Artisan Bead (unknown), Navy Galaxy, Blue Goldstone, stopper, Chess Lock

I've been wearing this one double stacked with another blues bracelet, but more on that very soon!

Everything But The Beads

Well given that I was a student in Hull, albeit not as early as 1982, you'll perhaps forgive my title...

Today I thought I'd bring you up to speed with everything but the beads... and yes there are TWO chess locks in that photo.  There are also two plain locks but you might have missed those in the excitement.

Whilst Victoria over at Endangered Trolls alerted everyone that the chess lock was about to make an appearance actually for sale through a retailer and kept us all up to date, later on Michael over at Mike's Trollbead Adventure! wrote a lovely piece on the history of this lock, supplemented by his insider knowledge of not only having worked with Trollbeads but also having visited Fable who are the UK distributors of Trollbeads.  I would recommend a visit to those two blogs for a much more detailed account of this lovely lock and the story of how it all happened.

For me personally, the appeal is a lot about what the lock is not... it's not floral, an animal or particularly girly/cute.  I like it because it is more plain, gender neutral, a bit abstract even though it's a pattern and I love the history of it.  As an aside I anticipate that I may be switching over to Redbalifrog locks next time I want a new one as I love their detailing and designs.

There was quite a scrum, as first one, then two, then three, then four Danish retailers were able to sell a very small quantity of these locks, which flew out of the shops selling like proverbial hot cakes. Whilst I did manage to get my own lock on the second attempt (I found a retailer selling these before it had become common knowledge), the credit for my second lock goes to a very lovely troll friend who managed to source several for people who were unable or unsuccessful in buying any at all.  I did make sure that everyone had had the chance of getting at least one before I felt confident in snagging a second... I didn't want anyone to miss out!

Bracelet wise, I'm now up to 7 silver bracelets and have been steadily buying stoppers and safety chains for all of these.  All my safety chains are artisan as I just can't bring myself to pay the official asking price for a safety chain... When I first started collecting I did purchase an official chain, ironically this broke (totally my own fault I hasten to add) and I didn't want to pay out for another.  I've also been able to source artisan stoppers too so apart from my first 2 troll ones, I've picked up 4 more official troll ones at half price but the rest are all artisan.  More bead fund for beads!

Leather wise I just have my original blue leather bought back last summer and the brown leather I picked up just after Christmas, the new collection that released in January 2013 saw some 2 toned leather bracelets added so I think that may be just where I am headed next.  Leather bracelets are great when you want a more casual look, to wear less beads or need to type/write and a full bracelet is just too tricky.

Just before the all the chess lock excitement/drama happened, I'd finally matched up the number of bracelets to locks to stoppers to safety chains, not that this matters but it was fun (in a nerdy kind of way) to have everything all equal.  I'm sat here wondering if this is a good enough reason for more bracelets now I have 2 spare locks?  In an even rarer Mars moment, all bracelets are actually made up right now and I have none spare for bead play (for all the spare beads) - and yes I did have to dismantle everything and store it with military precision to take all these photos and yes it very much was a complete pain in the ass to do so.  That should remind me to plan ahead a bit more with photography for blog posts, or maybe not!

Which is probably why the next picture happened, I think I thought that if everything was dismantled I needed more to show for it... now I know what I think this is a picture of, but I wonder if we see the same thing?  Tony Hart I am not!

Finally there was one more thing I was really in need of.  If you read the blog on a regular basis you won't have failed to notice that my collection has increased quite substantially over the last 5 months in particular.  I overcame the storage issue by buying another stacking case (I can't recommend these enough for being very useful) but I was hankering after something a bit more substantial.

I'd seen the official Trollbead white jewellery cases when they came out, but being not a fan of white, I completely ignored it, and to be fair I didn't need something that size at the time.  What changed my mind was a discussion on how friends kept their beads, there were some great solutions but then I saw photos of the white jewellery box with someone's collection in and realised just how much it held.  So then I was on the hunt for one, which was much harder than I expected given it was still on all the websites.

Unbeknownst to even my Local Dealer, not only had they all sold out, but were no longer available from Fable either.  I then turned my attention online and scoured the internet, lots of jewellers had them on their websites, but as an order in item; which you can't do if there are none left... I finally found one and ordered it and probably confused the shop by ringing them up to ask "You definitely have this actually in stock in the shop, one you can physically send out?"  as I knew I was running out of time to find one... but yes they did have one actually in the shop and yes they did physically send it out the next day.  I would show you this full of beads but given my title... you'll just have to wait.