photo #688251

I've been hand tooling leather as a hobby for over 25+ years (yes, I'm old as dirt). Since I've been researching pirates, I wanted to try my hand at doing something new - historically correct pirate jewelry.Pirates would use the materials they had readily available - leather, metal, coins, jewels, animals bones and teeth, etc, to shape into jewelry. Keep in mind that was "back in the day" when men really dressed up to go out for a night on the town - fancy clothes, shiny metals and jewels to impress the ladies and show off wealth, etc.Historically speaking, some pirates made necklaces, bracelets, even earrings that contained coins and gems, because they didn't have a bank or vault or even a ship locker they could put their valuables in for safekeeping, and any pirate would want to keep an eye on his valuables, even when he was in town partying.So I'm in the process of making various kinds of "pirate jewelry" which is an interesting project since I've never made jewelry before. But the way I look at it, most pirates back then didn't either. So here are a few of my ideas of what I think it may have looked like back then.