The days are getting cooler, so fall is surely coming soon. Why not try this leather necklace with a TWIST to accompany your fall weather fashion!

What you’ll need:

• 2mm Leather Cord (Item used in example A022075/Z018647)
• Gemstone Donut (Item used in example MZJ40DNT-M)

Directions:

1. Cut a 60”-70” piece of leather cord and fold in half. Slide the mid point through donut hole. **Note – it’s better to have too much leather starting out than not enough. You can always cut it before making the sliding knots in the final step.

2. Pull cord ends through to almost make a lark’s head knot.

3. Flip donut around.

4. Take the midpoint of the loop and make a twist. Pull cord ends through that loop.

5. Pull your cords to create a cross loop.

6. Make sliding knots to cord ends to make it adjustable. Check out previous blog on how to make a Sliding Knot.

Our friends at Dakota Stones have been generous to supply us with semi-precious and gemstones beads in a variety of natural stones, shapes, sizes, and finishes. We’re especially fond of the matte-finished gemstones. They are stunning with unique, nature-made cracks, lines, and spots.

Dakota Stones shares with us more about matte finishes and their matte-finish production process:

“Matte-finished or frosted gemstones have become a popular design choice in jewelry. They complement many of the newer design materials such as ribbon, leather, chain, rusted auto parts or whatever designers dream up. Matte finished beads work with many of the alternative metals and the variety of finishes now available such as gun metal, copper, antiqued, etc. Matte-finish offers a subtle accent or an understated elegance to designs and is a great choice when designing men’s jewelry.

The process to matte-finish a bead is counter intuitive and actually requires more steps than the traditional polished stone. The stone bead is put through all the normal steps of a polished bead; cut, drilled polished, then it goes back into the tumbler with a fine grit powder, water and additional tiny stones and tumbled to the desired look. Each stone type requires a different amount of time in the tumbler depending on the material’s hardness and characteristics. Harder materials can require up to 2 hours in the tumbler and occasionally it takes multiple tumbles with different various-sized grit powder.”

So, the next time you pick up some matte-finish gemstones and awe over their texture and smoothness, take a second to appreciate the time and care that went into creating these natural-looking gemstones. These types of stones will make a great addition to your next design project.

(image source Dakota Stones and original Post HERE.)

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