It's a Snap...

Last Saturday I had one of those learning moments in class. I kind of love the part of class when what you are teaching results in an epiphany. This time it was about snaps.

So here how it went...
The wonderful Bead Inspirations in Alameda, CA hosted my class and I had five eager cuff-makers. Everyone did such a great job. Here are a few pics of the class projects.

It was a fun day of designing and stitching. However, there was one small glitch. The snaps. It's one thing when you are creating by yourself to pound (and pound, and pound, and pound) snaps into leather, but it's quite another when you have five students all trying to pound unruly snaps and having varying degrees of success. I am happy to say that everyone did get those snaps in, but with a little more elbow grease than I thought.

The class went great but before teaching it again, the snap situation would need to be resolved. After class I went to the the fabric store to search for a solution and lo and behold, I found this in the notions aisle:

Find it at this link.

They are perfect for the leather cuffs. Here is how they work.

 There are four pieces to the snaps.

To add the top receiving end of the snap, push one of the pronged pieces through the leather and place it on the snap fastening tool. These are size 16 snaps, so place it in the size 16 slot so it fits snugly. Make sure that all of the prongs are completely pushed through the leather. The outside of the pronged piece sits on the outside of the leather with the snap sitting on the inside.

 Place the snap component on the prongs.

Close the setter and strike it with three or four blows with a plastic or rawhide mallet.

Repeat with the other side of the snap. This time the outside of the prong component goes on the inside of the leather. Push the prongs through the leather. The snap component sits on top. Close the setter and tap to secure the snap to the leather.

Here is the finished cuff with the snaps in place. They are nice and tight and easy to snap open and closed.

I also taught the students to make felted beads and how to turn them into acorn dangles. I need to attach this one to my cuff. Want to make felted beads of your own? I posted a tutorial over on Snapguide.

All-in-all a fun project and I am so glad that these snaps are perfect for the cuffs. Thanks again to my students. I had a great day stitching with you!