Inspired by the Dammerung LARP I want to join. My character, Alei, doesn’t worship The Three. But she respects the beliefs and her ancestors. She wears this bracelet in remembrance of her family.
Pardon the dog hair in the background.
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I am no expert on leather. But I have found out that beeswax and olive will help finish your bracelet.
Just watch out for the Nibelungen!
Nicely done! I love cutting leather in the 
, it makes it so simple and reproducible
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I work with leather and several months ago, I discovered this arc USB lighter. I never knew anything like this existed
OMG —it is the very BEST tool to quickly burn off those pesky little hairs. It would take about 5 seconds to do the bracelet.
Purchased from Amazon about $9 I now own 4 of them.
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Thanks! Great tip. Been wondering how to fix that. Would a BIC lighter work fine for now, you think?
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Here I go filling up my Amazon basket again… thanks for the tip!
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You can also burnish the leather by dampening the edge of the leather slightly and then rubbing the frayed edge against a piece of wood until it’s shiny.
They make burnishing tools with concave edges, but really any surface that creates friction will do.
Side note is that olive oil goes bad, so not something you want to put on your leather. Best to stick with beeswax by itself or get some leather polish.
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My experience is limited, but lacking the desire to buy tools just for a one-off, I used the inside curve of a fork (stainless steel). Worked fine.
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Great idea!
Yes, any type of lighter would work to burn those hairs off.
One way to professionally finish the back side of veg tan leather is to use a product called Gum Tragacanth. Everyone just calls it gum trag.
Pour some gum trag onto a flat surface,take a foam brush and paint the backside of the leather with the gum trag. Wait about 1 minute then take a rolling pin and burnish it into the backside of leather. If you know how to use a rolling pin you can do this. Gum trag smoothes down the fibers.
You can also burnish the sides of veg tan leather with the gum trag. Do not get the gum trag on the outside of the leather. If it happens just wipe it off.
When you are burnishing leather you are applying a product to smooth down the fibers. Only vegetable tanned leather can be burnished.
YouTube has dozens of videos about burnishing leather. A lot of YouTube videos will use water to burnish. Eventually the fibers will come back up if you use water.
If you intend to use the same rolling pin for baking-- cover it with saran wrap. Gum trag is NOT toxic.
I use so much gum trag I purchase it by the gallon.
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Nice use of etching & cut outs! I like your closure too–not sure if this is where you got the idea, but it’s just like the cable ties in the shop, and is a nice solution to add adjustability as a design element!
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It was inspired by the cable ties, yes C: I’m hoping to do away with them eventually once I can start adding clasp closures.