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! 

Battle of the Split Ring Pliers

Two weeks ago I reviewed my "Bead Buddy" split ring pliers.  If you missed that, you can catch up here.  Since I posted that, I've heard from a few people that they didn't even know this kind of pliers existed, and I think blood has been drawn in the effort to use a sharp pokey thing to assist in separating the rings.

Abby from Xuron is a regular reader of my blog (hi, Abby!), and this week I received a sample of Xuron's split ring pliers (thanks, Abby!).  I e-mailed her to thank her, and I told her I'd have a "Battle of the Split Ring Pliers" and said, "It's on like Donkey Kong!"  I don't know where that came from, but I tickled myself.

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ARE YOU RREEAADDYY TO SPLIT SOME RRRRRRRRINGS?!?

In this corner... Weighing in at 63.3g... The current champion sporting green handles... The Bead Buddy split ring pliers!  ::crowd roars::

And in THIS corner... Weighing in at 60.8g... The challenger sporting baby blue handles... The Xuron split ring pliers!  ::crowd roars even louder::

::ding ding ding::

As they come together in the middle of the ring, we see the Bead Buddy pliers have a wider stance, making them a little harder to hold for people with smaller hands (including the referee):

Squeezing each of them closed, the referee finds that the Bead Buddy pliers are nowhere near as smooth as the Xuron pliers!  ::crowd makes shocked sounds::

Look out!  Bead Buddy threw a right hook at a passing split ring!  Let's look that in slow motion:

Wow - that looked like a glancing blow, and the separation of the rings is minimal.

Not to be outdone, Xuron - who closely resembles Sam the Eagle of The Muppets - wrenches the ring away from Bead Buddy and takes his own shot at it:

Xuron's approach is a little different - it's more diagonal than horizontal - but he gets right in there and separates the rings much more than Bead Buddy.

What's that?  Xuron knocked Bead Buddy AND a pair of circuit board/resistor earrings out in one fell swoop!

The crowd is going absolutely wild!  We have a winner, folks!  We. Have. A. Winner!  ::holds the Xuron split ring pliers high in the air while dancing around the studio:::

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I hope you enjoyed that battle as much as I did.  I know you may be thinking that I let the Xuron pliers "win" because they were given to me by Xuron, but they really are a much higher quality of plier than the Bead Buddy ones.  Yeah, you'll pay more for Xuron, but that money goes straight into quality.

It took a little while for me to get used to how the Xuron pliers work (the whole diagonal vs. horizontal thing), but once I did, I really liked it.  Since the ring separation is so much wider, it was easier to move components through, and I didn't have to switch to my bent nose pliers for the last part of it.  I was able to rest the end of the ring against the pliers and push the ring the rest of the way.  The feel of the Xuron pliers is so much nicer, too.  All around it's a wonderful tool.

I do maintain that if you're very rarely going to use split rings, you'd be fine with a Bead-Buddy-caliber plier, but for anyone who will use split rings more than once or twice a year, you would do well to invest in the Xuron pliers.

This is not going to be the case with every tool I review, but I sell these split ring pliers along with the 4 in 1 Crimper and the Fireline scissors.  You can find them at any bead show I go to (see my website for my calendar) or on my Xuron tool shop page for $16 plus $3 shipping.  You can probably find them cheaper elsewhere, but you'll have my undying gratitude, and if there are any problems with the tool, I have a direct line to Xuron.

Now onto the earrings themselves.  The circuit board is from the keyboard I took apart.  There's a picture of the best parts from that keyboard along with a bracelet I made from the silicone sheet here.  I'm in the middle of another bracelet using the silicone sheet - look for that next week!

The resistors Steve bought go well with the circuit board, so I used those as well.  I have 470 resistors left.  Long, long way to go!

If you missed my reviews of other Xuron products, check them out:  "Fireline" scissors and 4 in 1 Crimper.

Dainty resistor earrings

It's Marketing Monday!  Don't worry - I'll make this quick, then we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.  For my classes, click the design name for a picture and more information.

• The Kickstarter campaign for knitCompanion is still going on.  It has quite a ways to go, and they need your help!  Take a look at the campaign for information on that, and click here for information on my promotion - donate $25 or more and get a free beading pattern or tutorial from me!
   
• Saturday, February 15, 2:00-4:00 - I'm teaching Simple, Stitched, Stylish at Knot Just Beads.
   
• Sunday, February 16, 9:00-4:00 - Gardens and Gears Steampunk show at Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee.
   
• Wednesday, February 26, 10:30-12:30 - I'm teaching Double Decker Daisy at Knot Just Beads.
   
• Saturday, March 1, 7:30-10:30 - If you're an LBS member and will be at the Retreat, come take my Stamped Dominoes class!  Click here for a picture and more information.
   
• Saturday, March 22, 6:00-8:00 - I'm teaching It's Got Legs at the Madison Art Glass and Bead Show.
   
• Friday, June 6, 5:00-8:00 - I'm teaching Cobblestone Path at the Bead&Button Show.

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Today was a busy day.  I had two orders to ship; one of those completely filled a small Priority Mail flat rate box!  When you consider that I shipped beads and keys, that's quite the order!  (Thanks, Karen!)  I still need to e-mail the tutorials after I finish up the Star of David key tutorial.  I also made an appointment to get our taxes done and signed us up for a Settlers of Catan tournament in April.

But the one thing I hadn't done yet was make something and blog.  Steve said in chat, "How about something with resistors? If you don't have any other ideas, of course. Don't mean to push."  Well, I had something else in mind today, so I pulled out a bunch of things and started thinking about what I wanted to do.  That thinking led to wondering if there was a way to add resistors to them since I have 480 to use up.  That wondering led me to playing with them, and I ended up making a pair of earrings with only resistors:

The wire on the resistors is nice to work with - it's soft without being too delicate.  It's not very long, though, so my attempts at wrapped loops (up where the earring wires are) aren't as nice as I'd like them to be.  It was a little difficult to get everything even, but I think they look good.

Since I'm fond of symmetry, I paid attention to where the gold stripes are.  On the earring on the left, it's on the right side of the top resistor and on the left of the bottom one.  It's reversed on the earring on the right.

Resistor count: 476 left.

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Here's why it takes me so long to blog some days:

Pixel says, "You're not going to embarrass me in front of your friends again, are you?"  Yes, Pixel.  Yes, I am.

A key pattern webpage (and earrings made by Steve)

I frequently get inquiries about my key patterns - what I have available, how much they cost, and how much the keys are to go with the patterns.  I keep meaning to get Etsy listings up, but I knew they would be pretty complicated since there are a lot of options.  Today I got the second inquiry in a week, so I sat down and made a web page with all the options for all of the types of keys I carry.  I still want to put them up on Etsy, but this is a great way for anyone who's interested to see everything all in one place.  I know this wasn't creating in the traditional sense, but I'm still counting it as one of my 2014 projects.  Along with the web page, I made a few graphics using Photoshop, and they required a fair amount of creativity!  Here's the graphic with my holiday key offerings:

The Star of David key I showed you a few weeks ago will be added when I stitch the mini key.

If you'd like to see the web page that this graphic appears on, click here.  It's not available from my home page yet.  That's a task for another day.

For those of you who are sticklers in having something physically made for my resolution, I will be playing with brick stitch again later on this evening.  To tide you over, I give you earrings made by my husband from resistors for the Gardens and Gears steampunk show at the Mitchell Park Domes:

You may recognize the steel wire frames from my blog post a few weeks ago.  Since I have purchased the frames I want from Fire Mountain Gems, the steel wire ones are now available for other projects.

Steve had the idea this afternoon during our lunchtime chat.  He said, "I think steampunk is more than just gears and keys."  After a bit of discussion, he said, "Should I stop at a Radio Shack and pick up a handful of steampunky looking components? Like lightbulbs and resistors? Resistors would make cool earrings."  We looked at some pictures online and agreed they would make cool earrings.  He picked up a pack of 500 resistors from Radio Shack on the way home, as it was more cost effective than buying individual packages.  He used 20 to make the above earrings.  Only 480 to go!

I told Steve I was going to have to hire him as an employee if he's going to start making product.  Too bad I can't pay him in anything but kisses.