Cyberpunk Cable Necklace - 101 Uses for a Dead Keyboard - Part 2

This is a very simple thing to make and costs very little to make a pretty gift. This is the second in my series, bringing the running total of uses for dead keyboards to 11.

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OK, there probably aren't actually 101 totally different uses for a dead keyboard but we will see how far we get.

Our local Geek Central - "The Electron Club" ( http://carrierdetect.com/?cat=23 ) - in Glasgow has provided me with a crate of dead keyboards in preparation for the workshops at the upcoming Scottish maker fair: McMADSAT, so I needed to be ready to use up the pile of parts accumulating on the living room floor.

There are already some excellent ones on Instructables:
1 Keyboard as planter or seed sprouter: http://carrierdetect.com/?cat=23
2. Keyboard keys as drawing pins/thumbtacks: https://www.instructables.com/id/Keyboard_Thumbtacks/
3. Keyboard keys as beads: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wintereenmus-ideas-Keyboard-Bracelet/
4. Keyboard badges and name plates: https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Techie-Name-Badge/ and https://www.instructables.com/id/Geeky_Valentines_Name_Sign/
5. Keyboard films as wallets: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wallet-made-from-a-computer-keyboard/
6. Coat rack: https://www.instructables.com/id/Apple-puck-mousekeyboard-coat-rack/
7. Keyboard in a bottle decoration: https://www.instructables.com/id/A-Simple-Keyboard-in-a-Bottle-Decoration/
8. T-shirt modding: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-cool-cyberpunk-top-using-keyboard-bi/
9. Kelendar: https://www.instructables.com/id/Keylendar/
10. 101udk Part 1 Geek bag: https://www.instructables.com/id/Geek_Bag_101_uses_for_a_dead_keyboard_part_1/

Step 1: What You Need

The curly kind of laptop cable
Scissors or pliers
Spray paint
beads or other pretty things

Step 2: Cutting and Painting

Cut the plug and any circuitry off the ends of the cable.

Cut off the straight part of the cable about 10-15cms from the curly bit on both ends.

Spray paint the cable. i used gold but any colour you like. naturally a lot of the spray paint is not going to hit the cable, so do it in a box, or somewhere the mess wont matter.

While the paint is drying strip the outer (usually grey) insulation off the straight parts of the cable you cut off, above. You will find 4 coloured wires and one naked one inside. Keep these - you will use them in the next step

Step 3: Fixing the Ends

Bend the straight part of the cable round into a loop and tuck the excess down into the centre of the curly cable.
Using one of the pieces of thin coloured wire, tightly 'whip' the two cables together to secure the loop. Whipping means wrapping the wire very tightly around the cables and also over itself, so it holds in place. See the excellent pictures at: http://www.seascoutknots.com/commonwhipping.aspx or else you could use the thin wire to just tie a lot of reef knots around the cable. Or even use some coloured tape.

Now thread the other straight cable end through the loop and tuck it into its curly cable to make a second loop linked in the first loop. Secure it as before with a whipping or whatever.

Step 4: Add Pretty Things

This is the artistic bit. You can really use anything: beads, buttons, tiny toys. Use pieces of the left over thin wire to tie them onto the cable.

I used some cheap and fairly ordinary beads plus some of the little sockets that the spines of an umbrella are fitted into. (see my umbrella bag instructable and you will understand why I have a box full of these). You could make it more masculine perhaps by using small figures or other things instead of beads.

That's you all done. necklace ready to give to your favourite cyberpunk friend or relation.