I made these hairties originally when my son was a baby and braided them into my hair to amuse him...I set them over pressure points, so that when he tugged on them it felt really good! Finding leather supple enough and fine enough to go through semiprecious stones and crystal and yet strong enough to last through hair washing etc was quite a task... and in order to recognise the leather when you see it, you have to be quite experienced at cutting and working with this time honored material...Here we have turquoise and pearls strung with silver... I had to re-drill the pearls and the turquoise...