[boo]

My mom is getting to retire in a few weeks, and she wanted to show her appreciation to her fellow officeworkers by giving them all a small token gift at her retirement pitch-in. We decided to make everyone inexpensive pearl bracelets. The bracelets for the 27 women in her office are no-brainers for me, but she has one male co-worker and we are a bit stumped about what to make for him. He does wear some relatively edgy jewelry, so she is fairly confident that he would wear a bracelet, if it were "manly" enough. We are thinking about a black leather cord with a single large black FW pearl (I have some deep black 11mm potatoes from Integrity Pearls), but I have never made anything like that before and need pointers on how to work with the leather. Also, we are definitely open to suggestions if anyone has any other ideas. (I have revisited the thread about Kevin's Tahitian designs - and Mike's "inverse Tahitian" - but even if I were to substitute FW, I don't think the gentleman in question would go for an all pearl/bead bracelet)

[jshepherd]

Mikehrz came to our office and made one last year. He posted a picture here.

You could do a similar piece with a circled or drop Tahitian for very little.

[knotty panda]

Hey Boo! Before you consider the design, you have to check the size of your drill holes. You may have to go down to a suede cord.

[jshepherd]

You could always widen them. I know you may not have a drill, but I am sure you can find someone willing to widen them for you. It is a 30 second job.

[mikehrz]

Just make sure the hole is enlarged carefully...

See the thread I posted and you'll understand why

[boo]

Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn't really been thinking of the leather-through-the-pearl style since I knew the drill hole would be too small, but I didn't consider trying to find someone to do it locally. Could I expect pretty much any fine jewelry shop to have a drill available? I was thinking of making a double wire loop through the pearl and attatching that to two short leather pieces (one on either side) which would then meet at a clasp opposite the pearl. Does that make sense? But then I wouldn't know how to attatch the leather cord to the wire loops, or to the clasp (at least without making big ugly knots).

[jshepherd]

Or you could send us the pearl and we can try not to chip the nacre.
If you have a local bench jeweler they should be able to widen it for you, as long as it already has a hole!

[boo]

Gee, I don't know, Jeremy - maybe if you guys were more experienced, I'd take the chance, but I spent a whole 30 cents on this pearl, and I'm just not sure I could risk something happening to it....

Honestly, though, if I do decide to go that route with it, I'll probably just look for someone here to do it. These are supposed to be quick little token gifts and I'm not sure it's worth the time or postage to send it out your way. Worst case scenario, Dave gets a box of candy instead of a bracelet.

[knotty panda]

LOL, too funny! Well, you could actually leave it long enough for him to tie himself with no clasp. A larkshead knot would secure the leather to the wired bead, but I'm SO leaning towards the suede. Everyone is doing leather these days -- it's so 5 minutes ago! I feel a cyber-smack coming on. I'm gettin' outta here while the gettin's good! LOL