Just part of the journey...and my first tutorial!

For the most part I'm a self taught Artist. I have no formal training other than taking a few workshops here and there. I love to explore and teach myself a variety of techniques.

So when I decided I wanted to combine metal and leather, I just went ahead and got started. It all went well until it was time to attach the copper to the leather. I had seen a few examples of this kind of think on line and my first impression was that the metal had been attached with wire.  After some time fighting with the wire, copper and leather, I discovered that this was not going to be as easy as my brain had led me to believe it would be, as is so often the case. When I get stuck on an idea my best solution is to start doing some google searches. This usually delivers endless suggestions for how something should or could be done. But in this case I came up with next to nothing. Not one tutorial or video to be found. Etsy as usual was a great inspirational source but I could only guess at how some of the lovely leather and metal cuffs had been combined. So it was back to the drawing board. I started to think about any conceivable method of attaching these two elements. It wasn't long before I had a number of methods to try. So I went ahead and tried them all

With this first one I attached it with waxed linen. Something I had handy from doing some book binding. Once the holes were made in the leather and copper I sewed it together. For fun I added some rivets to the leather band with my Crop-a-dile.

The next one I decided to try some mini nuts and screws. I had bought these earlier this year but hadn't tried them yet. Although they are very small to work with they proved to be very easy to use. I was able to cut the extra length of the screw off with my wire cutters and just give the ends a little sanding with my metal file. I will definitely be using these more in some upcoming projects.

On these last two I used rivets and my Crop-a-dile. I was able to use the Crop-a-dile to make the holes in the metal and the leather and then set the rivets. On the tan one I added flowers with more rivets to the band.

I started out thinking if I try lots of different methods for attaching metal to leather, I would at least find one that worked well or that I like. But in the end I discovered three methods that are quite easy to accomplish and I really love the look of.

So what do you think? Which method is your favourite?

And let me know how my first tutorial went. Did I give you enough information or too much? I can take it, let me know how I can improve.

Also if you know of any other methods for this I'd love to hear about them.

Wendy