Gear and resistor bracelet (and accidental earrings)

In my quest to use up the resistors Steve bought me (the beginning of the resistor saga is here), I decided to make a bracelet.  At first I thought I'd just have multiple "strands" of linked resistors, but in looking through my "steampunk" supplies I found some scrapbook embellishment gears that I thought would look cute with the resistors.

Because I didn't have more of a plan than "use the gears with the resistors", I decided to start in the middle.  I put the largest gear in the middle and attached three resistors on each end using wrapped loops.  I added resistors to each of the original resistors, then I measured:

I decided this would be a good time to add another gear to each end and taper the bracelet down from three across to two across.  I had a bit of a hard time adding the gears because the holes are small and because the teeth of the gears interfered with the loops moving around.  If I had made larger loops, I think it would have been a little better.

I added resistors to the end of each strand:

At this point I measured again and thought that I could add one more resistor to the ends then add the clasp.  I made wrapped loops on all of them and measured again, figuring in the clasp and the length of another resistor and... oops!  It would be about 8.5", which is a bit too long for the average woman.  This bracelet could be worn by a man, too, but I wanted it sized for a woman.  If someone with bigger wrists wants it, I can always add on and ship it to them.

The lobster claws I had were a little large, so I was considering using a different type of clasp.  I glanced down at the gear I had left over, and the lobster claw fit on it just fine.  I now have a unique clasp and I used up all of the gears of that color for that set!  I'm very fond of using things up.

I put one end of the clasp on with a split ring (man, I love those new pliers!), and tried to add the other end with another split ring.  It didn't lay right, so I ended up cutting two resistors off and adding new ones so I could do the wrapped loop directly around the other end of the clasp.

The bracelet is just about 7.5", which I think is a good length.  The one thing I don't like about the bracelet is that before putting it on it'll have to be straightened out when the resistors get twisted, but that's the nature of this kind of bracelet - when you have loops, things will get twisted.

But what of those two poor resistors I had to cut off?  Never fear - they were made into very simple earrings:

I frequently have people ask for earrings with very small dangles, so these are perfect for that.

Resistor count - 20 for the bracelet and 2 for the earrings, so I'm now down to 448.  Woo hoo!  I'm making a dent!