Extra Moccasin Patterns

All the Above Patterns are from a great book, Craft Manual of North American Indian Footwear.
Also if you interested in purchasing some patterns you can check out this website. I have bought a lot of patterns and these are my favorite. You get three patterns in one set and they have a huge pull out so you don't have to draw your own patterns. They are a bit pricey though which sucks. The point of making my own moccasins was to save money. But after its all said in done all the patterns and books I bought probably add up to a pricey pair of moccasins haha. Oh well its been a lot of fun. :)

Make This: Love Heals Mountain Necklace

Love Heals is an amazing jewelry company based in California. For each design sold, 10 trees are planted in Ethiopia. How cool is that? Ever since I saw Vanessa Hudgens wearing this necklace at the Planet Blue Mother Nature party I've been in love. I've been stalking the necklace on eBay but they go for a small fortune, somewhere in the $300 dollar range so I figured I try to make one for myself.


Above are a few close up pictures of the necklace. It looks amazing on but kind of weird off.  Below is a DIY if you want to make one yourself as well.

Part One: 

Step One: Gather: Five or more charms, needle nose pliers, wire cutters, scissors, deerskin, jump rings and jewelry pins

Step Two: Cut out a large circle of leather.

Step Three: Cut six long strands of cord by cutting the leather circle in spiral direction

Step Four: Separate the six leather strands into two sets of three.

Step Five: Knot both sets of three leather cords at the top leaving a little bit of fringe and then braid.

Step Six: When you are finished braiding, knot each of the braids off leaving again a small amount of fringe at the bottom.

Step Seven: Lay the two braids side by side.

Step Eight: Tie the two cords together at the top and then twice near the bottom.

Part Two:

Step One: Cut four small pieces of cord

Step Two: Loosen the bottom knots you made in part one

Step Three: Thread the cord through the knots and then tie them off

Step Four: Tighten knots once you have the cord in place, You can play around with it. I tried it on and adjusted the knots until it felt just right. I had to loosen a few of them and cut some of the fridge. It looks best when the fringe is at different lengths. That is what is so great about this necklace, nothing needs to be perfect.

Part Three:

Step One: Take your charm and place a pin through through the bead hole/hook.

Step Two: Take your pliers and form the pin into a hoop.

Step Three: Then attach your charm now equipped with a hoop onto your jump rings and attach that to a leather knot

Final Results:

I'm so happy with the one I made it looks exactly like the real thing and I got to customize it with my own beads and charms. I've been wearing it everyday since I made it :)

Good Stuff: Deerskin Everything

I've been seriously digging all things leather this month but a lot of my favorite piece are too pricey for my budget. So I decided to try to make some myself. I love throwing myself into projects and have been going crazy recently trying to recreate some of my favorites and make some original pieces of my own. I dropped a ton of money this month buying deer hides and tools and have been working non stop making leather jewelry in my free time. I want to start making bags and shoes soon but first things first. Making leather jewelry is great to get familiar with the basics. I plan on working my way up. I'm going try to share some of my projects in case anyone else wants to start dabbling with leather too. Here are a few of the pieces that got me into this mess :)

Torchlight Jewelery

Deerskin Moccasin Boots via Made

more Torchlight Jewelery

T Smith Knowles, always out of this world. 

Moontive Bags

An awesome pair of 80s moccasin boots I scored off of eBay.

Heyoka Leather greatness

Heyoka+Torchlight Clutch

More T Smith

Make This: Breastplate Necklace

Like I shared in my last post, I’ve been drooling over leather necklaces recently. So after zooming in a million times and studying the necklace pictures carefully I decided to try to make a few of them myself. I bought some leather and beads and have been working on them nonstop every since. It’s been so much fun! I have even been loosing sleep over it while I lay awake planning my next project. I love loosing myself in stuff like this. I have been trying to plan a DIY post but am not horrible at both giving directions and taking pictures. So I found a this DIY post on tumblr and wanted to share:

 First a little inspiration:

Heyoka Leather’s Turquoise warrior necklace available at free people, here.

  Heyoka Leather’s Spotted Eagle Necklace, also available at  free people here.

Both necklaces are essentially the same in construction (deerskin leather braid with an adjustable knot-tie closure, rows of beads in a leather frame, fringe bottom) but differing in color theme, row spacing and degree of structure (spotted eagle rows remain horizontal rather than drooping because of the one large bead). I opted for a hybrid baby of the two that we might call…. the spotted warrior? Fierce.

Materials: leather (I bought a bag of oddly shaped scraps of leather discarded from an industrial leather company. It’s cheap and good quality! Got it at a Michaels store), sturdy thread, heavy duty needle (has to be able to handle leather), beading string (the type with the built in wire threader is easiest), an array of beads

Tools: fabric (or sturdy) scissors, small sewing scissors, x-acto knife, very thin paint brush or chopstick or other similarly sized utensil, super glue (not pictured here! whoops!)

The Procedure:

Part A: The Braided Necklace

Part B: The Beaded Piece

Part C: The Fringe

Part D: Connecting the Whole Thing

Results: 

 Total cost: $23.75 for beads + $5 for bag of scrap leather + $2 for beading string = $28.75

Total time: About 6 hours

… This project is pricey and time-consuming compared to the majority of jewelry I’ve made, but I think it is a fun piece well worth it. The quality of the leather and beads do matter here though. Don’t buy plastic beads and don’t buy fake leather, or your necklace might look like something from a costume store. Also, have fun with it and try layering it! 

Isn't this awesome ^^^ This was taken word for word from her blog. Here is the link if you want to check it out : Pleats n’ eats

My project was a bit more pricey than her’s because I bought opted to buy two full deer hides and an excess of beads. I also punch holes in the leather with a leather hole punching tool so no thread and a smother connection where the braid goes through the top. I will post pictures of the necklace I made in a few weeks :)  I hope you guys enjoy the project as much as I have. Here are a few websites I found helpful:

  
Distant Drums Leather: They have a great selection of deer skins. I purchased mine directly off their website and the owners are fantastic! I’ve called them quite a few times before to get help when I was stuck on a project and they are always so nice and helpful. Click here for their website.

Crazy Crow: They have a huge selection of  cheaply priced hair bone beads. I could not find these anywhere in my area so I ended up ordering them online. The rest of the beads I picked up at a local bead shop. I like to be able to handle them to get an idea of the quality and the size. (Sorry, tangent) Crazy Cow website, here.