These are some of my copper pieces and I have actually sewn them to bracelets I made with upcycled belts. Funny to think the metal smithing was the easy part! I've discovered with the belts, they need to be real leather for one and not some compressed material. I go through piles of belts and flip them over and look for cowhide, leather or any other markings that tell me they are the real deal. It's possible that this could be done with synthetic material, but I do like the look and wearability of leather.
I've found some really cool heavily tooled leather belts that will look great set up with some nature imprinted metal or with some added words. It's been fun to search for the perfect belts for my projects.
I've mentioned the learning curve before with this... You know it's sometimes easy to do the same thing over and over, but I really wanted to get more into using leather with some of my projects. Things I've learned and considered are the types of leather, thickness, sizes of snaps, sizes of leather punches, other tools, will I drill my metal or use a metal punch, what size punch should I use, can I get it centered, thickness of my copper or metal, getting the correct size hole in the metal to get the rivets to set through all the layers, waxed cord, leather cutting shears, staining the cut leather... So, you can see there was a little bit of thought involved here.
This metal was sewn to these because the gauge is heavier and the hole I pierced in the metal was too small for the rivets to go through. I've seen these sewn on like this and I actually like the look and it's flatter. A rivet will set up a little bit above the surface of the metal. It's possible to get things together and looking just fine while you are learning. I can try something a little different each time I make these and it's all perfectly fine. Even the things you think aren't perfect can be finished nicely.
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