One of my favorite materials for necklaces is leather cord. They come in different sizes.  I especially love the stitched leather cord from Endless Leather, a German international supplier. The inner cotton cores make these cords much more pliable and less stiff than the equivalent thick leather cords. They've now come up with soft stitched silk cord too.  I received some recently for review.


This supplier has all sorts of cord for every taste.  Metallic, faux animal print, suede, stitched jeans cords and so on!


They also carry some high quality findings. The stainless steel collection is worth a look!

The round stitched silk cords come in 2.5, 4 and 5 mm diameters.  They even sell them flat, without the core. Use them for all kinds of pendant designs!    I used the 2.5 silk cord for this turquoise colored wire wrapped vase of flowers pendant of mine.  The designs shown here will be appearing in my Etsy store before too long.



I used a thicker silk cord in a gorgeous dove grey color as both the bezel and the necklace for the next design. The crystal was sewn to the cord.  I did a simple picot beaded edge on the outside as a design detail and also to hide the stitches used for sewing on the bezel. The wire wrapping also hid the sewing I did to initially close the cord around the crystal.


I also used one of the thicker silk cords in black to make a simple choker.  A beaded tube and some opened up wire coils were added as the focals.  Check out this past tutorial post on how to add beading around leather cords.  Another tutorial to inspire is the side peyote one for easy decorative tubes I wrote about not too long ago. It is the method I used to make the tube below.

I also made the wire coils myself using bail forming pliers.  You can use any coiling mandrel you have so long as the size fits the cord - see my past post on 4 ways to make short wire coils.  I also make my own clasps and coil wire ends. The trick with the latter is to use thicker gauge wire - like 16 G. Check out this feature tutorial I wrote about.

I had a lot of fun making this pure copper wire wrapped vase of flowers pendant necklace. Check out this post which I shared the basics on how to add patina to copper so that it adds depth to the design and how to protect the finish.

Giveaway
If you'd like to win  $50 gorgeous leather or other cords and findings from Endless Leather,  please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info below if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Email subscribers need to scroll down the post they receive, click on Share Comment 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. (The exception is Facebook - just like/comment on the giveaway status there!!)

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday, May 30, 2016 . 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!

Disclosure

Photography
I used natural light my iPhone 6S with the camera+ app and the Modahaus TS320 tabletop studio for all final jewelry designs.  Additional photo editing was done with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Check out my How to Photograph Jewelry Webinar

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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