Beading with Leather Lesson

1. Introduction to Knotting with Leather Cord

Today's beading lesson is on knotting with leather. It's such a hot material this year and it's really easy to do. This is a bracelet tying station that you can use to make it a little bit simpler. And I'm using 1 mm leather cord with this. Now, you could use any diameter of cording. I chose 1 mm because I have these gemstone beads that have two-millimeter holes, so it works out great.

2. Preparing the Leather Cord and Beads

Now, to get started, what you'll do is cut a piece of leather and fold it in half. And I just fastened it down here at the end. And then since I know I'm adding beads to this project, I go ahead and add them before I connect the other end to this little station. And then you're just going to fasten these into place here.

3. Setting Up the Tying Station

And what's helpful about this is a lot of times when you're doing macrame Knotting, you can do it on a board where you just pin it down. This also has the ruler here and it's adjustable, so it gives you some more options and frees your hands, too, for the tying.

4. Starting the Knotting Process

So, what we'll do is a basic square knot, and I cut another piece of leather that's about twice as long as the first one. So, depending on how long you want to make your bracelet, a lot of times. For women's bracelets, I start out with about 40 inches of the long one. So, then my middle one is a little over 20 inches here. So, you're center it here, and this style of bracelet is going to be finished with a button. So, it's okay to leave this fold here under the attachment. So, you start by crossing and then bringing one cord under and through the loop for your half knot. And then when you do the second side, you start with the other cord. You can pull this so this one comes across and the next one comes up and through. And you could continue knotting in this way.

5. Adding Beads and Other Decorative Elements

To make the back of the bracelet lay really flat against the wrist, you could start adding beads. If you use a thicker style of leather, then you're going to get a chunkier look, so that can be fun, too. And of course, the leather cording comes in so many different colors that work perfectly with all different styles of large hole beads. So, these are pyrite. So, I have a few knots here. I'm going to scoot this one up and then do another knot. You can do a few more knots, or you can just do one do it both ways to give you an idea of what it looks like. So, if you haven't tried knotting yet, I really think you should give it a whirl. Because stacking bracelets are so popular, you could whip these up really fast so it's just back and forth like that, and then you can slide another bead and then knot it again.

6. Measuring and Finalizing the Bracelet

So, what's nice about having your ruler along the side here is then you can tell how far along you are in the pattern. So, you can make your same distance here at each end. Also, this lets you know how long to make your bracelet. But you do want to keep in mind your clasp. So, there are all kinds of clasps that you can either glue and go by attaching it onto the end. But let me show you how to do the button closure.

7. How to Do the Button Closure

I'll just move this out of the way and bring my other piece. So now you can see here's my loop at the beginning, my knots, and then my beads through the center. These are Labradorite, and I love the way that they work with this gun metal color of leather. They really pick up that luminescence. So, you have your four cords and bring your button. Depending on the size of the shank, you can slide it over one of these center cords or both. So, you're just going to pass it through the shank, and I'll just do one that's okay, because then you can flip it over here. We're going to tie an overhand knot with all the cords, and they'll be hidden here at the back. So, you could also wrap it around your finger here to make your overhand knot, then just place these through the loop. So, this is a really simple way of finishing your jewelry. That looks great. You can trim your ends, or you could add little beads here if you wanted to. And to fasten it, you're, of course, going to bring the loop over your button.

8. Showcase of Different Bracelets

Okay, now let's take a look at some of the other bracelets that I brought. This is the same one we just made, but in a different color way. And I love that way that the green metallic works with the Adventuring beads. It's so pretty together. This one is repeating your beads with just 1KT between, but I use the heavier cording here… and also that variegated. This is a natural dye, and you can really tell the way that it brings out the striping and the beads. It looks so good. This one is with a rhinestone bracelet bar there in the center. This is a little different. And this works well in the tying station because you have to knot a while, then slide this up and then knot the other side. And this bale on the back here doesn't accommodate all of your cording, so the station makes it easy to just add a new cord and keep knotting.

9. Combining Knotting with Other Materials

This one here is an example of using this together with other materials. So, I created this knotted section, but then I also attached the braiding with wire wrapping. You can see it here at the end, where it's attached with just a coil that I made. And then I added some chain. So, this is creating the look of a stack, but it's just the one bracelet. Let me take it off of here so you can see, and then when you're ready to wear it, you can just wrap it around. You could also wear this piece as a necklace. So, this is another idea of how to use the knotting in your jewelry making.

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