Edgy bracelet tutorial using a pottery cuff focal bead and a bicycle tire

If you have been following my blog you know I like to recycle or up cycle items.   This hole project began when I spotted a old bike I had as a child up against the barn of my childhood home.  My daddy helped me take the chain off the old bike and I used it to press into the wet clay to make this super cool edgy pattern.  Then another crazy idea was to use a recycled bicycle inter-tube as the cuff of the bracelet.  The inter-tube was rescued from a bike my kids have recently out grown. I took the old bike inter-tube and fashioned this cool, edgy bracelet.  It was super quick to make and a fun accessory especially for bike lovers. 

I started by cutting off approx. 9 inches of the inter-tube, I then folded about a half inch of the tube inside itself to form a more finished edge.  I punched a hole with my leather punch and attached a metal button like one finds on their bluejeans. See post for details.
 

 

 

I then cut a button hole on the opposite side and curved the ends of the inter-tube using household scissors.  I glued the ends shut with household white glue.  To hold in place while drying I put clothes pins on the end.  Sorry I forgot to photograph that step. After it had dried overnight, I removed the clothes pins.

 

I held a 30x60 mm pottery cuff bead up to the center of my bracelet and punched holes to match the hole placement in the bead.  I then attached the bead to the inter-tube using micro screws.

 

This is the finished bracelet, ready to wear.  It should be a fun piece to wear with jeans and perfect for a bike or motorcycle enthusiast.  This piece was made with a stormy blue pottery bead but I have it in rusty truck also which is a brown with red rust spots.  Enjoy! Cindy

Note: that bike tubes have a natural curved shape so if you use a focal bead that has a top and bottom design you may consider adjusting that with the curve of the tube.

Leather and Pottery Cuff Tutorial

I recently explored the possibility of making my own leather cuffs as I wasn't able to find what I wanted.  I found that both my local craft stores (Michael's and Hobby Lobby) sold leather strips (in the leather section of the store) that are approx. 4x9 inches.  I also found that in the sewing department I could purchase metal buttons that are designed for jeans.  The process was really easy, just cut the leather to the width you need and the length plus one inch to the length.  

Leather Punch

I have a leather punch that I used to punch a small hole in about 1/2 inch from one side and centered.

Metal button back

This shows the nail head of the metal button

Put the nail head of the metal button into the hole and then flip over the leather and line up the decorative metal button top, carefully flip over again and put the button back on a hard surface.  
 

This is the top of the decorative jean button

 With one good whack of the hammer it will be attached firmly to the leather.  On the other side of the leather I made two small holes parallel of each other and cut the center to form the button hole for the cuff.

Give the back of the button a whack or two with your hammer

The button is now attached

This is what it looks like buttoned

 Now embellish the cuff with old findings and a pottery bead. Determine the mid point of the leather, and align a pottery bead on a metal finding.  It helps if the metal is curved, just take a can of veggies out of the pantry and use it to curve the metal.  Line up the bead with the metal finding and mark on the metal finding where the holes are in the pottery bead.  Punch a hole thru the metal where you made your marks.  I use my euro punch to punch the metal but you could use a drill also.

My Euro Punch

Now line up to the mid section of your leather cuff and mark where the holes will hit the cuff.  Make a tiny hole with a leather punch, and then add a micro screw thru the pottery bead, finding and leather secure on the back with a micro nut.  You could add E-6000 to the back of the metal finding before attaching the screws for a more secure fit.  

This cuff was made with one of my Edith beads

I love the patina on the metal

This image shows the micro screws on the inside of the cuff.  The back of the micro screw can be sanded with a file if it is too long.

This image shows all the details of the cuff assembly

Another version using black leather and one of my pottery rose beads

These are so easy to make and the varieties could be endless using old findings and pottery beads.  I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  Happy day! Cindy

Making Faux Fossils

     My eight year old nephew has a upcoming Boy Scout event and they are learning about fossils.  My sister who helps with the Boy Scout activities was visiting with me about the upcoming event.  They want the boys to be able to dig for fossils. So I decided to help by making faux fossils.
     First I went out in our yard looking for bits of nature and found plants, and sticks.  I also raided a box of sea shells.  I took earthenware mud and made a flattened ball and pressed the objects into it to make an impression.  I wanted to have lots of variety for the new fossils.  I loved the plants but I wanted a creature hummm... after some thought and searching I found a old plastic bug in a board game and I pressed it into the clay, the bugs are my favorite but I only made a few as I was almost done when the thought hit me.
     I fired the pieces after they dried, and then took coffee grinds from the coffee pot and put the grinds in a bowl with some hot water and submerged the now bisque pieces into the mix.  I let them soak all day as bisque is very porous.  I let them dry overnight and then I hit them with some brown shoe polish for a little depth.  I think they turned out really cute, and they did not take that long to make.  I used pottery mud but these could be easily made with polymer clay, just bake the clay as directed and touch up the details with some paints or inks suitable for polymer clay.  This might be fun for a birthday party or even as a treasure for geocaching. 

This one was made with a plastic bug

I like that plant and shell designs.

Acorns and sticks worked well for impressions.

 

Softball bracelet tutorial

 I saw a really cute bracelet on Pinterest made out of a baseball, and my oldest daughter loves softball so I decide to give it a try. I bought a practice softball at Target's it was under $5.00 bucks. I really liked that it was half pink and half yellow as I knew it would make a great reversible bracelet. It was sized more to the size of a baseball which is perfect as I feel a real softball would have been to large.  This ball was made out of a vinyl of sorts and not leather.

I was able to use sissors to cut apart the stitching and carefully take the ball apart. I was left with two pieces.

   

These are the two pieces of the ball once it was taken apart.  Line them up back to back and then stitch using red embroidery thread. I added a jump ring and lobster claw in the middle of each side to finish.  I used a Mr. Clean scrub pad to remove as much of the writing as I could.  I think it is cute how it is reversible, and for about $6.00 worth of total supplies I think it will be a fun piece for my teen daughter.

Recycled Blue Jeans Wrap Bracelet Tutorial

I love denim, so comfy and casual.  I recycled part of a leg of jeans and made a cute wrap bracelet and wanted to share the process.  I started by ripping a one inch strip of denim from an old pants leg.  The strip is approx. 16 inches, you may need more or less depending on your wrist size.  I frayed the edges by removing some of the threads from the sides of the denim.  Be sure and rip the length of the jean leg, the part that goes up and down. Then gather your supplies, I have scissors, needle and thread, jump rings, a 4 inch piece of 8 gauge copper, a hammer, some pliers, a metal block and one of my oval pottery links.

 Fold over approx. a 1/2 inch of the denim and stitch with a running stitch to make a loop.

 Knot the thread to finish and then add one heavy duty copper jump ring in thru the denim loop.

 Add a 2nd copper jump ring.  Repeat with the other side of the denim.

 Attach one of my pottery oval links.  This one is in stormy blue.

 Take about 4 inches of 8 gauge copper wire and form a circle with your round nose pliers.

 Flatten the link with your hammer and metal block.  Cut the ends so they are the same size and hang over the opening of the pottery link about a 1/4 of an inch.  This is a simple toggle but you could make a fancier one if you wanted to.  Attach the toggle to the other side of the denim. 
One side now has a toggle and one side the pottery link.

 Wrap the denim around your wrist, and secure with the link and toggle.  Easy Peasy, and ready for wearing.  Mine is going to be a Christmas gift, and as easy as these are you might want to make several of these. You could use ribbon, sari silk, embellish the denim strip, extend the length of the denim and wrap multiple times.....endless combinations.  Enjoy!

A tiny peek at the process

Just because many people don't understand the process of taking mud to beads I thought I would share a quick peek at the process. The mud I use comes from Austin, Texas in 25 pound bags, and it is gray and...smells like mud.  Or I often imagine it smelling like a good pot roast as it pays for the groceries among other things. 

 

Mud new in the bag

Tutorial for toggle bar

I have just made a new style of clasp out of pottery with the option of the designer making their own bar to match their design.  The toggle is made of pottery and there are lots of ways to make a handcrafted bar for the toggle out of the wire but here is one example.  With step by step instructions.

Cut about a 8-9 inch piece of wire that is heavier in gauge, about 16 gauge is good.

Slide a bead (this one is 8mm) on to the wire at about a third of the way.

Fold the wire on either side of the bead as in photo.

With your round nose pliers pinch in the wire below the bead.

Here you can see how the wire should look.

Place your round nose pliers about a half inch from your bead.

Bend the wire to form a hook.

Take your round nose pliers and wrap wire forming a loop.  Trim the short wire to be even with your loop

After the loop is formed hold the loop with flat nose pliers and use needle nose pliers to wrap the tail end of the wire around your toggle bar.  Cut off any extra wire.

Here is the finished piece, add a jump ring to the other hole to attach to your design.

The wire toggle bar finished.

Capture a Moment to create something beautiful and Enjoy!

The pottery pieces are available in my Etsy shop.