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by: Dwyn Tomlinson

I TOLD you I couldn't stop.

I wanted to try embellishing the Regaliz / Licorice Leather with something different. This heavy gauge Aluminum wire adds a nice splash of colour and it's sine wave pattern evokes jungle cat spots.

• Cut your piece of Regaliz leather and glue on your clasp.
• Take a piece of wire approximately 3x the length of your leather. I had a little left over, but your mileage may vary. It's easy to cut wire off - impossible to stick it back on.
  
• File the ends of the wire smooth and straight for a cleaner look.
• Make a spiral at one end - just use the round nose or small bail making pliers. It doesn't have to be perfect.
  
• Hold the spiral on top of the wire, on the leather, at one end. Hold the leather in your hand with your thumb on the top, on top of the spiral, so that you have a good grip. Make a nice, decorative curve in the wire, and then wrap the wire around the back of the leather up to the top again. Keep some tension on it so that it wraps tightly and stays put.
  
• Now - you could just wrap the wire around and around the leather in a long spiral, but that would be boring, so we are going to do the ol' switcheroo. Every time we come up to the top of the leather, we are going to do a U turn and go back down under the leather, and come back up the other side, then do a U turn, and go back down and back up on the other side, etc. 
• In order to get a nice consistent curve for the U-turns, you can use the large bail-making pliers, or, if you have strongish thumbs, you can grip the wire hard against the leather and pull the wire back and around into the U-turn.
• Proceed with the U-turns until you get to the end.If you have more wire than you need for a spiral, trim some off. Go around the back of the bracelet once more, just as you did at the beginning, to secure everything, then make your spiral.
• Use your nylon jawed pliers (so as not to scratch the wire) to make sure that your wire wraps are tight to the leather and secure and nothing is sticking up. The wire hangs on surprisingly well - it would not be an easy task to slide the wire off the leather.
  
• You can hammer the wire down onto the leather at this stage if you like. It traps the leather in the wire even more securely, and also makes little facets in the wire from the hammer blows that reflect the light a little more and just looks more professional, I think.
  
• Finally, bend the whole bracelet gently with your fingers into a curve, and it is ready to wear! 

There are lots of other colour combos to try. The purple on the teak colour looks fine, but I am thinking that gold would have looked handsome too. Or blue wire on green leather? Or copper on the sweet potato leather? ... oh dear - somebody stop me! I need a 12 step program ...

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Components Clicking on components links will open a new window so that you don't lose this page.
		s32976 Adhesive - 3 gram Super New Glue - (This glue works very well.)	Price: $ 3.25 per	Sorry, Out of Stock
		hda2610-p Craft Wire - 12ga - Purple (Beadsmith) (24 inches approx)	Price: $ 14.95 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
		s36015 Findings - Regaliz - Magnetic Clasp - Pewter	Price: $ 12.60 per	Sorry, Out of Stock
		s32980 Findings - Regaliz - Magnetic Clasp - Pewter - Stamped (1)	Price: $ 12.60 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
		s32975 Leather - Regaliz Licorice Leather - Ebony (foot) (8 inches for me - but you might want shorter)	Price: $ 10.24 per	In Stock
		s23232 Nylon Jaw Pliers - Flat Nose	Price: $ 15.95 per	In Stock
		s23266 Tools - Hammer - Chasing Slightly Domed	Price: $ 19.95 per	In Stock
		s25108 Tools - Medium Bail Making Pliers - Wubbers	Price: $ 42.50 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.