Leather Kumihimo necklace with shell and stone

This month I've been working with natural materials to make some new jewelry, mostly from Prima Bead - leather, stone, metal, wood. I did some Kumihimo projects a couple months ago and it was so much fun, I wanted to have another go.

For this statement necklace, I made a basic Kumihimo braid with two colors of leather cord, green and yellow. I love how thick the braid turned out - it's about a 1/2" around.

I trimmed, twisted and glued the ends inside some spare metal filigree cone findings I've had in my stash forever, using E6000 adhesive. Then I added a magnetic clasp with some sturdy jump rings.

The braid was pretty enough to leave as is, plus I didn't think I'd be able to find something bold enough in the right colors to hang from it.

But my stash served me well - I happened to have these large, flat beads in the right shapes and colors. The circle is shell (1-1/2" diameter) and the rectangle is stone (1-1/2" long). I placed a natural pebble bead in between and coiled the top eye pin around two of the individual cords.

The combination of leather, shell and stone makes for a lovely organic look. I really like how this turned out!