Adjustable hematite rondelle & faceted copper black leather choker

Despite the dark skies and late start, the market yesterday was pretty good. When I say late, I mean we were all there from 5:00 a.m. onward setting up, but by 9, everyone was asking where the customers were. The market was almost deserted. Then they came. Tons of people. I didn't even really start selling until 11:15. Needless to say, I was a little worried up until that point. The rain managed to hold off until about 12:15 or so when it absolutely monsooned. That lasted for about 5 minutes and then the sun came out for most of the afternoon. Driving down the country roads everything is lush and green again. No word yet how farmers' crops have fared. Too much, too late, or...?

I'd made several orders for people and when I went to photograph them... yep, insufficient battery. I managed to get one piece photographed, though. Luckily, it was the one I was most pleased with.

Since most beads don't come with sufficiently large holes -- or at least beads most guys would want to wear -- it's tricky to come up with uncomplicated workarounds when making adjustable leather chokers. Too many beads strung on wire and you end up with a longer, necklace length once you allow for sufficient leather extension to get over someone's head, too few beads and it might look a little wimpy depending on the size of beads you use -- or it could look totally cool. You'll never know until you try, eh? This particular strung length is about 6.5 inches.

For those looking for larger-diameter holed beads, Magpie Gemstones provides an ever-increasing selection. I have a huge order on its way. Can hardly wait to see what I get this time.

In the meantime, I'm using wire. In the interests of ultimate adjustability, I am choosing to use a jump ring between the wire and the leather loop (and often two for extra security so the wire doesn't slide through the cut in the jump ring). This is a test to see how it will stand up to wear, as the wire I used is a larger diameter than the fine .012 I use for seed beads and tiny stones, and for which I wrap an intermediate spacer with closed loops. If you go back and look at the glasses lanyards I made, that's what I did there to make sure they wouldn't come apart. Or I would use a wire guard.

In any case, the way the stiffer wire sits here with the larger gauge jump ring there shouldn't be a problem. Another thing to consider re shorter length/thickness/stiffness of the wire, is that with a leather choker, you don't want the necklace part to be too floppy, so for this I chose to go up a thickness in wire to give it a structure similar to the leather cord.

This is a great way to make extenders for bracelets -- in place of one of the jump rings, you'd attach a clasp to one end of the leather (or chain) extender, maybe a totally over-the-top decorative focal clasp so that people could use it for many different bracelets.

Thanks for looking!