Eden: Gemstone Necklace with Round Braided Leather

This post brought to you by LeatherCordUSA.comIt’s raining here today.  This doesn’t bother me in the slightest when I have the joy of staying inside and making jewelry.

Yesterday was gorgeous.  Today it’s overcast and drizzly.  Yin and Yang.

So with this gray day, I’m presenting a piece that is lush in gems and texture.It started with a pile of this unique round braided bolo leather from LeatherCordUSA.com.  I can’t tell you how much I’m intrigued with this stuff.  It comes in different finishes and diameters.  Really really amazing quality.I opted for the natural finish for this piece.  It’s thick and perfect to support the weight of the gem section in the front.  Speaking of gems…I’ve had these hanks of gemstones hanging in my studio for two years.  They were inexpensive so I bought a lot.  The time had come to use them and as is because the odd bead shapes together made my eyes happy. The only thing was I felt it needed a tiny bit of contrast yet something to unify the group so I added tiny copper colored rondelles to each strand.I used Beadalon gold 15 strand beading wire so it blended with the stone colors, then crimped them to a wrapped wire loop with #1 crimp beads.Then I strung the large bead cone onto the wire with a few beads and finished with a wrapped loop.  Nice and tidy.Nothing but colorful goodness.Once you have the gemstone section secured, cut the leather to the desired size and glue end caps to the Glue and Go findings.  I removed the clasp that came with the end findings and connected it to toggle rings which were then connected to the bead cones to create a decorative element.My plan is to wear this as a layering necklace.  I will create some shorter chain and pendant pieces to go with it.

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