Thrifting Thursday 7-25-13 Leather Belts



Hello Friends~



Today's "Thrifting Thursday" is a quick peek into my use of the leather from re-purposed belts. Recently, I have been making cool pendants from vintage and re-cycled belt buckles, like you see on the right.
 
I really like the way a functional item becomes an art piece, but being a 'thrifty' girl I hated to waste the leather that was left.

I use these awesome metal shears to easily cut through the leather
[available here > http://www.bsueboutiques.com/shop/index.php?keywords=shears




This buckle will be set aside for a future pendant, but the leather is very nice with a tooled designs and in very good condition.  So let's put it to use.



Some of my first attempts with belt leather involved just using the loop that is already part of the belt. I wire wrapped a cool broken brooch that I found on a thrifting adventure and voila' ~ a bracelet.

Lately, I have been experimenting with embossing and etching on copper sheet metal and I thought this would transfer well to the belt leather bracelet idea. I decided that I needed to add a more secure clasping mechanism and purchased a snap kit at my local big box hobby store. It's quite easy to do.





 As with most of my projects, I love to fiddle, experiment and tweak as the ideas flow.
I expect this will take on more incarnations as I continue to work with these pieces.
THANKS for stopping by today. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this topic.
Have a great weekend!
Warm Regards,
Tammie

Comments

  1. Fabulous!!!!!!!!!!! I am definetly going to follow this post as I love to use recycled materials! Thanks for sharing. I have some old leather coats I would like to incorporate into some jewelry somehow.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for commenting Kristin, I'm sure there are a million great uses for that coat leather... hmmm maybe I'll put one of those on my 'thrift shop watch' list...

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  2. Really neat cuffs, love your recycling Thursdays.

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    1. Thanks Dolores, I love thrift finds and writing about thrifting, I'm so pleased that you find it interesting too!

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  3. Too cool, Tammie... I love the embossed sets. I wonder if the leather itself could be embossed?

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    Replies
    1. That is a great point Monique, I'll have to give that a try....

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  4. Such a clever girl you are! I LOVE that belt buckle dragonfly necklace! Too bad it's already sold!! :-)

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  5. Love, love, love! I want that belt-buckle-dragonfly creation!! You are a clever girl :-)

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  6. This is such a great idea!! And your bracelets come out so nice. I'll have to try this - we have lots of old belts around. Thanks for the tip. fPlease add more links to your pinterest boards that you use for inspiration. It took me a while to find one and follow you!

    Best -
    Lisa
    http://www.lisayangjewelry.com

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