Make your own leather bracelet with a few craft supplies and then fully customize with Dremel Tools for a personalized wearable or gift for a friend.

Step 1: Gather Available Supplies

There are few ways to develop an awesome leather bracelet, but this particular item was designed by the Dremel team, in conjunction with etching/burning artist Jamie Locke. Follow Jamie Locke Art on Facebook or Instagram for more art and ideas that will inspire!

Supplies:

1) Leather: We typically use 1" or 3/4" straps from Tandy Leather

2) Scissors or Leather Cutting Tools, like a Tandy End Punch

3) Snaps: Find Heavy Duty snaps at your local craft store

4) Leather Hole Punch and Snap/Rivet Setter

5) Plastic or rubber mallet

6) Dremel Rotary Tool: Any Dremel tool will do, just be sure to have a Dremel sanding band to finish edges or Dremel Engraving accessory to etch new designs into the leather

7) Dremel VersaTip Butane Tool for burning custom designs onto the front or back of the leather

Step 2: Size/cut Your Leather

Simply adjust to your wrist size, leaving roughly 1/2" extra overlap to ensure there is plenty of room for snaps.

Cut the leather with scissors, or for a more finished end, use an end punch available where leather is sold. We bought ours from Tandy.

Step 3: Add Holes/snaps

Use the Punch set to drive holes into the leather where you would like to place the snaps.

Using your snap setter pole, with accompanying snaps, simply pound the snap into place. One snap is sufficient, but for leather bracelets 1" in width, we think that two snaps add to the detailed design.

Step 4: Customize With Etching or Burning

Easily customize your leather bracelet by pulling out your Dremel tool and adding personal details. We suggest choosing between ETCHING or BURNING.

Etching could be accomplished by attaching one of our engraving accessories to any Dremel Rotary Tool.
Burning can be accomplished with the new Dremel VersaTip or a fine point soldering iron.

Steps to personalization:

Sketch your design lightly with pencil or even chalk.
Follow your sketch using your tool of choice, keeping your fingers at least 4 inches away from the tool tip.

Step 5: Finish With Sanding Wheel

Sand away the rough edges of the leather with a Dremel sanding band and round the edges if your scissors left the edges too rough.

Professional tip!: Glue a strip of denim onto your Dremel sanding band, to perfectly smooth/polish the sides of the leather. Jason Babler from MAKE magazine shared this tip with us, and his bracelet looked awesome, but we haven't tried it personally, so you'll have to simply experiment on what works best for you.

Step 6: Enjoy Your Bracelet and Make More for Your Friends

That's it!

There is nothing better than handmade wearables and they make the perfect gift. Check in with Dremel or Tandy Leather for other inspirational projects.