Endless Leather, a German international company is well named.  They have a huge stock of all kinds of European leather cord. Their handpicked stock includes "braided bola cords, finest calf laces, nappa leather cords, stitched and braided, cords made of finest salmon leather, suede, printed leather, exotic leather lace and much, much more!"  


They do wholesale as well as offer graduated prices for artisans. You need to create an account with them to see the prices. They sell by the meter which makes sense for artisans who make a lot of leather jewelry.

I got to review some of their excellent quality leather supplies including some great clasps and end caps.  I am sure the reason why European leather bracelet designs are so very, very popular is the contemporary stylish look. While they are easy to make, there are ways to customize the designs even further.  Here are some ideas for you!



First of all, I didn't know we could get camouflage suede!  This round stitched suede (#16550) is great for masculine jewelry. An awesome magnetic stainless steel clasp (#88200) is all that is needed to add a little focal to the simple design. They have a nice selection of both matte and polished stainless steel clasps.


My absolute favorite from this sampling is the silver recycled leather (#18050) which I made into a triple wrap bracelet.  I hade a choice of magnetic flat pewter closures in either silver plate or antique silver.

While there is nothing wrong with a plain silver leather bracelet, I created my own wire work slider focal using a large crystal and a metal square as embellishments.


Little strips of leather from the leftover pieces can be made into earrings!  I riveted eyelets to the top of the strips. I punched holes at the other end of the strips. Then jump rings to connect some cool zinc findings I had and viola!  The silver leather strips take the place of solid metal ones!


One tip about cut edges of leather.  You can leave them bare but I think it is better if you colored it. As this was a silver leather, I used silver Gilder's Paste to coat the edges.  I've been known to use black marker pens too (see first link below)!


The blue 2.5 mm Nappa round stitched leather (#14009) was so pretty.  There was about 1 m of it so I used it all with a beautiful sterling silver clasp (#86010).  It can be worn as a 5 wrap bracelet.  I slipped on some zinc metal tubes which were lightly held in place with metal rondelles.  These were grouped as sets of 3.

It is also convertible as it can also be worn as a simple 2 strand necklace!


Most would use leather as a cord necklace.  But consider using lengths of it in innovative ways. The thick (5 mm) crocodile print stitched leather in black-brown (#14750) is usually meant for bracelets. What I did was to create a statement necklace using 2 lengths of this leather with a bit of wire wrapping and coil wire work.




Giveaway
If you would like to make your own trendy European leather jewelry, then  have a go at this Endless Leather $50 gift certificate giveaway. Please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Subscribers need to click on the post title to come to my actual blog. Scroll down and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank. 

This giveaway is international.

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments.

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday,  June 23 , 2014 . I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips