This magnetic leather bracelet is perfect if you want a cool looking bracelet that's also functional and practical when building and making things!

Step 1: Cutting the Leather

I began with cutting up some pretty thin, like 4 oz veg tanned leather into strips. I need two strips, one narrow and one wider, and the narrow one needs to be just wide enough to fit small rare earth magnets in the middle.

And the wider one, I cut to a width that seemed nice to have on my wrist. And here is kind of the concept, one on top of the other.

Step 2: Dying

I'm using an oil dye here to color the leather. And I've been playing around with different dyes lately, and while I like the water based dies as well, there something about the oil based one which I really like.

Once dry, I formed it around my wrist and cut to size, with a little extra to spare.

Step 3: Punching Holes

Now I'm using 5 magnet here, so just measuring them where I want them on the narrow strip, and then I punched some holes. So first, I punched all the holes with the biggest punch I have, which still was a touch too small to fit the magnets in, so then I very carefully punched the edges around, until the magnet just fit.

So this strip will be attached on top of the wider strip, and I need to stitch that together. Here I'm marking a line for the stitches, and then punching the holes in the spaces between where the magnets will go.

Step 4: The Clasp

Then I set that aside, and worked on the clasp. So I decided to use a riveted snap here in silver to match the magnets. I've been familiarizing myself with these riveted snaps lately, and messed up quite a few. I've realized that it's important to use the metal plate underneath for the concave tops, and also, to punch down with authority to get a good fit.

I'm also adding a loop for the end to slip into to keep the closure nice and tight.

Step 5: Connecting the Two Strips

OK, so now when the closure is in, and the top leather is punched and ready, it's time to combine the two. So first I'm adding some rubber cement to connect them.

Now I punch the holes again, to go through the back piece as well before sewing it together. And I decided to go with contrasting stitching here, so using a natural hemp thread. For the longest time I really didn't like contrasting stitching, but now when working with leather, I think the stitches deserve to be highlighted sometimes.

Step 6: Gluing the Magnets in

Once the two pieces were sewing in place, it was time to glue the magnets in place. And for this, I used epoxy, cause I really want to make sure they stay in place, and you can't beat epoxy for that.

And lastly I'm using a top coat to seal the dye into the leather to protect it.