adding leather

I'm adding leather to the materials I use to make my necklaces. So far I've only made two things with leather. I want the leather to be either leaves or feathers. I'm not sure what to do to the leather to add the detail so it isn't just the outline shape which is what I have so far for one and the other one I sewed a line through the middle. but I know I don't want to tie a knot behind the leather. So I could start with the middle of the necklace string being at the bottom of the leaf detail and sew up and the ends would be the normal ends of the necklace. I could cut the detail out but I'm not sure how the leather would hang after that, but I could try. And the other one I though about was use a wood burner to add detail, but I'm really not sure how that would turn out or just skor it.