Introduction: Beaded Battery Case

About: Former Instructables employee CHECK OUT MY WORK www.carleyjacobson.com
Try this beaded battery case to elegantly hide your battery to power your accessories so they can light up and move!

I love beading and I want to start including electronics in my accessories but I was having trouble thinking of a way to include a battery holder.  Thus, here is my solution: a battery case made out of beads and conductive thread!

If you look at the image, there are conductive beads in the center which makes a contact point with the battery.

Step 1: Materials

1. Conductive Beads - 12 beads
2. Seed Beads - a couple grams
3. Conductive Thread
4. Beading Thread
5. Beading Needle
6. Coin Cell Battery
7. Scissors

Step 2: Beaded Circles - Battery Contact Points

The beaded battery case consists of two flat beaded circles that are a little bit larger than the coin cell battery and a ring of beads that is two beads thick that will join the circles together.

In this step I will teach you how to make the flat beaded circles which are the positive and negative contact points of the battery.

Thread the needle with conductive thread.

Start by stringing 6 conductive beads. Bring them to the end of the thread and put the needle through the first bead that was strung. Continue passing the needle through all of the beads. You will notice that the beads form a circle.

The rest of this circle will be made using regular beads and the Peyote stitch. Follow this tutorial for the Peyote Stitch. You are taught to use this stitch starting with a strand of beads. I am modifying it to start with a strand that has been turned into a circle. It works exactly the same.

* Note: follow these instructions with the images provided, it will make a world of difference

String one (regular) bead until it hits the conductive beads. You will notice the thread is coming out of one of the conductive beads (the last bead the needle passed through). Skip over the bead directly next to that bead and pass the needle through the following bead (two beads over from the last bead the needle passed through). Continue to do this until you have three new beads attached.

Now following with the Peyote stitch technique, fill in the gaps between the last three beads added by adding new beads. Continue to use this technique to build the circle. As you build the circle you will need to add 2 beads at a time when filling in the gaps between beads. Just estimate if you think you need to use 1 or 2 beads to fill the gap and keep the circular shape.

You now have the first side of your battery holder. Do not cut the extra thread; this will be used to make a connection to your battery.

Follow these instructions again to make the second side of your battery holder.

Step 3: Connecting Contact Points Together

I thought about using regular thread to sew the edges of the circles together but there needs to be a bigger buffer zone between the two circles to make sure the conductive thread does not touch.

String regular beads on beading thread.  The strand of beads should wrap around the battery with a few extra beads.  Create a larger circle the same way you did in the last step with the first 6 beads by running the needle back through the beads.   Use the peyote stitch to make this 2 beads thick.

Step 4:

Weave this ring to the outer beads of one of the battery contact circles. Then place the battery in that case and bead the other contact circles on top. Then you will have a case like this. With the battery inside.

To connect to the battery use the two pieces of conductive thread.  Watch as I connect an LED to the battery case.