DIY Beaded Leather Book Thong

I recently took part in a handmade bookmark swap which resulted in me making two different styles of beaded bookmarks which I have not previously tried.  Both are very quick to put together, providing you have all the needed supplies, and today I thought I'd share a tutorial for one of them, the beaded book thong.

 

Supplies

- 25cm length of thin (2-3mm) leather cord (or length to fit your books)

- two jewellery end crimps

- headpins

- two 5mm jump rings

- beads of your choice

- superglue

- jewellery pliers

 

 

1. Add a dab of superglue to the inside of the end crimps then carefully place the end of the leather cord in the crimp before squeezing it shut with the pliers.  Repeat for the other end of the leather cord.  Gently wipe away any excess glue.

 

 

2. While waiting for the glue to dry, thread each bead onto a separate headpin.  Cut the end, leaving you a 6-7mm length, then bend the pin to start creating a loop.

 

3. Using the round nose pliers, curve the headpin end to create a loop at the top of the bead.

4. Repeat step 3 for every bead until you have a nice cluster of beads for each end of the book thong.  The more beads in the cluster the merrier, but try to have at least five beads per cluster so your cluster doesn't look too sparse.

 

 

5. Gently open one jump ring and thread the bead dangles for one cluster onto the jump ring before attaching the jump ring to the end of one of the end crimps on the leather cord.

 

 

6. Repeat step 5 to create the other bead cluster and attach that to the other end of the leather cord.

 

 

And there you have it, one beaded book thong to stop you losing your place the next time you have to put that gripping book down and be responsible (apparently being caught up in a good book is not a valid excuse for forgetting to cook dinner!)  These are so quick to put together you could easily make a stack of them in a variety of colours.  You could also add little charms to your bead clusters to add further bling to your book thong.  If you're a big fan of ribbon or lace, stay tuned for a beaded ribbon bookmark tutorial coming to the blog next week!