Playing with fish leather

I know, eeewww fish leather, really? is the first thing that comes to mind.  But this is processed and has no fishy smell at all.  The hand is flexible and the surface can be shiny or matte, but you might  have noticed somewhere along the line I tend towards shiny.

I picked mine up a couple of years ago in Tucson and set it aside.  We all have the set aside purchases right?  The things we purchased with a full vision of inspiration and then we came home and put it aside and life took over.  Tell me you know?

Agnes was over last week and had a plan to use her fish leather with filigree and some beadwork.  So I guess I was unduly influenced and went in search of my fish leather stash.  The filigree had been sitting in my 'odd bin' stash, the stuff you don't know where else to put it away, and it was the perfect patina and shape (if only I knew where I purchased it....)  I bent it into the cuff shape, drilled a hole in the center and attached it to the leather with crystal sequins.

Two Spirit flight components, one with cold aurum 2 mm crystals are nested together with a corrugated brass center.

Green ultra suede was cut the shape of the fish leather and a bit of bead embroidery was added to the edge...since this one is for me I chose to use 2 mm gold aurum crystals on each point of the picot edging.  It has quite a lot of sparkle!

I think it will go nicely with my simple black dress and my matching earrings. The earrings incorporate two of the master class components, Spirit Flight (same as the cuff) and Carousel.  The top bit behind the bezeled rivoli is a small version of the carousel ladder done with size 11's and 6 spines.  The versatility of the repeatable thread path.

And when I'm not wearing this cuff I have another Serena made with gold seed beads and 3 mm gold aurums, courtesy of vbff Susan who didn't want me to go to Bead and Button looking bead impoverished.  It is stunning and I'll show you soon!